Army Postal Service
by Smiling Eyes
Summary: When the Greek Army swept like a wild fire trough the city all I could do was run. Run with my son in my arms, trying to save us from the Greeks and most of all from the terrible Ares himself...
1. Under Attack

**Army Postal Service**

_When the Greek Army swept like __wild fire trough the city all I could do was run. Run with my son in my arms, trying to save us from the Greeks and most of all from the terrible Ares himself...  
__(A kind of steam__punk take on the mythology - for those who claim ancient accuracy - sorry it's not to be found here, I've taken quite a few liberties with the timeline and geographic characteristic)_

**Under Attack**

"Mommie, are we going to die?" Kalian looked at me with his big, brown eyes filled with fear.  
"No, dearest, we're not." I lied. "We're not going to die. We're going to make this; we just have to get away from the men chasing us."  
"Can we do that?" my son hiccupped.  
"Yes, yes, dear, we can do that!"

Nevertheless I was beginning to have my doubts. After all I was alone, carrying a five year old in my arms. A heavy five years old, and the Dark Warriors who persecuted us were plentiful. They were huge and lethal and well armed. Even if I could get out my sword which hang bumping in its scabbard on my back, what good would it do? It would only halt the inevitable a few seconds. No, our best chance was the 'rabbit's blade' - my fast running legs.

But the ground was uneven, filled with all kinds of rubble, scrap which had come loose from buildings and walls where hurled stones from the enemies' siege machines had hit. There were also fire everywhere, spreading foul smoke which made my eyes sting and my breath choke. Although the dark warriors seemed to have the same problem, which was a little bit of a comfort.

I cursed, Darangorlad was supposed to be Neutral Ground. The city state had not involved itself in the war between the Greeks and the Anatolians. They had declared themselves free of alliance and soon become an asylum for refugees and wounded. As a healer I had come here to work in one of the many temporary hospitals, curing Greeks, Anatolians, Darangorladites and others indiscriminatory. After all this was not my war, had never been my war. I didn't care about that distant peninsula they fought over, but I couldn't bear to see people suffering, not when it was in my power to help them.

Yes, I had healing powers; I could cure using my hands, something which was a curse as well as a blessing in violent times like this. There were times I had wished I was 'normal' but most of the time I used what the faithes had gifted me with for doing good. For doing my part in lessening the atrocities of war.

The war had started a bit more than six years ago, when the Greeks wanted to take back the occupied peninsula Losanara. They had seized their opportunity after the tsunami wich had swept away most of the Anatolian defense in the area and they had invaded, trying to reclaim the area. The tsunami had been very convenient for the Greeks indeed, and naturally some people claimed that it had been a doing of their god Poseidon. The first years the war had been going forwards and back, no one really gaining an upper hand. Mighty armies marching across the steppes of Anan, chasing each other, striking out, advancing and retreating in a seemingly incomprehensible pattern. But then the Greeks had begun to win, and started to force the Anatolians backwards, over the waste grasslands in the north and towards the coast. As a consequence the war had reached Darangorlad, when the Anatolians finally had fled over the isthmus and entered the neutral islet.

The Darangorladians hadn't really had any defense; they had relied on being a neutral mandate, and had hoped that it should be respected. But no, the Anatolians had just begun plundering the city state when the Greeks too attacked. Now the formerly so peaceful resort, which used to thrive on tourism, had become a war zone. Something no one here was used to, and accordingly the chaos felt like it was worse in Darangorlad than anywhere else.

I had stayed as long as possible in the hospital, yet fear for the safety of my son had made me go home and get him and then return to my workplace. After all we were undermanned since several of the medics had already fled. Our supervisor, Mr. Olidor, had taken off already when the first boulder had hit the block.

"I'm so out of here!" he had whimpered and then taken his personal belongings and ran. Those of us left had just stared at each other; never did we know that Olidor was such a coward. He, who had sounded so brave earlier when he had described his duty as a field medic back in the Ataludian war. The stories he had told, the immodesty he had shown, had they all been just lies and bragging? None of us said anything though, we just continued working. After all there was a lot to do, patients calling out in pain and for help all around us, and the enemies coming nearer for every falling grain of sand in the hourglass.

While the marching armies closed in upon us that faithful afternoon I worked as an ant to help as many as possible. Attempting to assure that they would at least be able to rise and try to walk down in the basement shelter when the Greeks came here. Because I held no doubth that they _would_ come - it was just a matter of time.

It was hard to really know who the real enemy was, but since the Anatolians had arrived first they were now defending us, so most people considered them 'the good guys' - at least for time being. But I couldn't help thinking about the atrocities they had performed when they came here slightly more than two weeks ago. The rapes and the looting. However now I knew that we had to fear the incoming Greeks because their arrival meant more slaughter, more killing.

First Kalian had thought it was exciting with the fighting going on around us, but then, when the going got a bit too tough I had seen fear in his eyes, and he had finally obeyed me and left the window and hid beneath a table covered with surgery items. The little of that kind we had left - that was another terrible fact, we were running out of supplies. Especially the anesthetics were sparse, and I feared that we might have to perform surgery without painkillers soon.

Then one rock hit the western section of the hospital and it made most of the roof collapse, the building to shake like being hit by a quake.  
"It's not safe here!" Xena said. My older colleague urged me to take my son and run.  
"What about you?"  
"I have no one who worry about me anymore. Zorem is dead and the kids have marched off to war, they don't care about old mama anymore. There's only myself. Myself and my pride and duty. But you have a son to care for, Narinda. Take him and leave! Get out of here while there's still time!"

I was torn between my duty and my motherly instinct, listened to the patients crying out in pain and suffering. But the next stone became quite a grain to tip the proverbial scale, I grabbed Kalian and ran.  
"Good luck, Xena!" I called back at the medic.  
"Good luck to you too, Narinda, and may the gods watch your steps!" was the last words I heard. Not that I thought any god would care but they were comforting words nevertheless.

With Kalian by my hand I ran down the staircase and out in the street. Here fires were raging everywhere. Fire in the houses, fire in the magazines and in overturned wagons. Burning trees and grass, the sound of roaring and sparkling flames only interrupted by the whistles and bangs of stone missiles. That and screaming people and animals. Terrified horses were coming in our opposite direction; bolting like crazed with ears laid back and bulging eyes radiating with fear. It seemed like they might trample us as they approached and in the last moment I had pulled Kalian with me into safety inside a narrow alley.

"Are we going home?" my son asked.  
"No, it's the wrong direction, the fires are more intense there. We can't go there now."  
"Then where are we going, mama?"  
"We'll figure something, sweetie!"

Fact was I didn't know. I had no clue at all to where to go, the fires seemed to be everywhere around us, and the stones kept coming. But I could not tell that to Kalian. I had to be brave for his sake. However I was a healer, a medic, I was sworn to the god Asklepios, I knew nothing of war.

On the other side of the alley, where it opened up into another main road, lied a dead Anatolian soldier, face down in the mud, crimson blood mixing with water. I relieved him of his sword and strapped it on my back. I also found two daggers tied around his legs and I took them too and tried to strap them to my own ankles the same way. The man had had quite a bit larger ankles than mine so the hard leather straps were naturally too large. On the other hand the knives were sharp, so I could use one of them to make another hole for the buckle in the leather, and thus make them to fit me a bit better.

"The stones have stopped falling" Kalian informed while I was piercing the second hole. I paid attention, he was right. Were the Greeks out of ammo? No, we weren't that lucky, they had stopped because now their infantry was arriving. First cavalry, fierce men on big war horses and then foot soldiers. A lot of foot soldiers. They came marching up the street in disciplined lines, drummers ahead of them.

Ta-dam, ta-dam, ta-dam, the drumbeats rang out like strong heartbeats and the soldiers marched with powerful determination to the resounding beat, their armors glittering in the fire light and their horse hair crescents swaying. They were terrible to behold and I could see people on the opposite side of the street backing into the houses again, and no doubt bolting their doors.  
"Quick! This way!" I grabbed Kalian's hand and we ran back the same way we had come.

Halfway through a burly man was blocking the way. Greek or Anatolian I didn't know, what mattered was that he was not letting us trough. But I still held one of the daggers in my hand and without thinking I was hurling it at him. And call it lucky shot, it hit him right in the troth, and he was down in a second.  
"Bravo Mama!" my son called out, and I smiled a bit, I had proved myself to him, at least this time.

Quickly I removed the knife and dried it off on the fallen hulk's mantle. Then I tucked it in the scabbard around my ankle and grabbed Kalian again, and we climbed across the body blocking the path. Next second we started out from the alley. The maddened horses were gone and there were no Greeks here at least, so we cut across the main street and inside the opposite alley.

The Greeks were coming from the east, so a rough plan started to form in my mind. Avoid the main streets and stick to the alleys and work myself westwards! First it went fine, we met no more warriors, neither Greeks nor Anatolian and Kalian and I soon shifted from running to walking, catching our breaths. We even stopped at a water fountain and drank 'till there was no more thirst. After that we found an abandoned stand filled with apples, and we took one each. Never in my life had an apple tasted so good, never in my life had a small rest felt so well deserved.

But say the luck that lasts! Just when I had figured we could make it to the Square of Stage Coaches and perhaps get us a ride out of town we noted that the heading of the alley we had chosen were blocked by Greeks. And not just any Greeks. I recognized their black armor and the blood red crescents of their helmets. Everybody knew these men. It was the Dark Warriors, the fighters of Ares himself.

"Oh, no!" I said under my breath. Then I retreated, pulling Kalian with me.  
"Mother, I'm tired!" my son complained.  
"Please be braved, dearest. We'll soon get to rest. Just a little bit more!"

We crossed the empty square again. Then we entered the opposite alley, barely avoiding a falling wooden structure from yet another house on fire. It crashed heavily behind us, sending orange sparkles in all directions, and I had to slap at my cloak to preventing it from catching fire when it too became hit. We turned a corner and then another one. Then Kalian fell.  
"Mother, I can't run anymore."  
"Please…"  
"I'm too tired, my legs hurt."

At the same time I heard fast marching feet behind us. I had no doubt who they were, and I felt a lump in my troth when I lifted Kalian in my arms. We were never going to make it. We were never going to get to the Square of Stage Coaches. Nevertheless I was not giving up. Because then we were lost totally. At least by keep moving we would still have a chance. No matter how slim it was ours to take! First I thought of hiding but there was nowhere to hide. I didn't dare entering a house and becoming trapped inside. Instead I exited yet another alley, which one in order I didn't know, I had lost count a long time ago.

Here was a dark park with a muddy ground and spooky shadows moving all over. But no fires, and I'd rather take dark shadows than Dark Warriors any day. So I started running across the grass, gasping for breath.

But the shadows among the trees weren't mere shrubs of the kind that scares you on dark and windy nights. This was what you thought you saw all the time those nights, the scare come real. There were more Dark Warriors here and they were closing in upon us. Fast.

"It's them! Call for the God!" I thought I heard someone yelling, but I was certain that I was imagining things. Who would want us? A petty healer with a kid? Nevertheless it was getting harder to run, my breath was burning like fire in my chest and my legs were starting to feel heavy. Kalian seemed to weight a ton in my arms and that sword appeared to be more in the way than anything else.

_"Mommie, are we going to die?" Kalian looked at me with his big, brown eyes filled with fear. __  
"No, dearest, we're not." I lied. "We're not going to die. We're going to make this, we just have to get away from the men chasing us."  
"Can we do that?" my son hiccupped.  
"Yes, yes, dear, we can do that!"_

But the voices were getting loader, while we ran down a slope.

The next second the Dark Warriors were all around us.  
"Stop!" someone was calling out. "Hold it, Lady!"  
"Fuck off!" I cried out with tears in my voice, feeling my throat contracting.

My outcry had hardly left my mouth when I felt a strong hand clutching my arm in an iron grip, forcing me to halt. One of the dark warriors had caught me, a man whose features I couldn't make out because his whole face was covered with a shining dark helmet. Beneath it I could hear his laboured breath; the man had been running hard to catch up with me. I decided to seize that advantage and although my arms were immobilized, one by him and the other by holding Kalian, I still had my strong legs. I kicked up and hit right at the nerve in the knee, but the man hardly stumbled, it seemed like he was numb to these kinds of stunts. Instead he turned me around so I was facing in the opposite direction, and Kalian, who was crying now clung to my neck, threatening my balance.

The dark warrior was trying to force my arm to my back, and to have me walk forward in the direction he desired. Holding on to Kalian I fought a losing battle when it suddenly hit me. Was I stupid or what? Why did I fight like a teenage temple dancer when I had other means? It was really not right to use my powers like this - backwards healing, but I concentrated upon the hand that was grasping my arm and sent a hard hitting bolt trough his endorphine system, forcing him do go numb.

It was only going to last a few moments, but that would be enough for me to get Kalian and myself away from the enemy. The huge form fell over me and made me slip in the wet mud and I fell, almost dropping Kalian, who was screaming loudly now. Then I felt Eyes burning in my back and I turned…

…And I saw him.

An immense black form against the raging fires. Flames reflecting in polished armor. Blood red horse hair crescent on the helmet that covered his face completely, a sword in the right hand and an axe in the left, both of them dripping with blood. And most of all there was the aura. The aura of an immortal, and as red as an aura could ever become. Red with war. I held no doubt about whom that one was.

Ares.

Ares, the Greek god of war. The feared one! The terrible one! The awful one!

Even though I felt it was futile I grabbed Kalian and pulled him harder into my arms, tried to protect him with my body. Some people squeeze their eyes tight, waiting for death. Not me, I couldn't stop staring at the fearsome towering God in front of me. I was terrified, hypnotized by this lethal predator.

Then Ares did something so unexpected that I almost fainted just from surprise. He put aside his weapon and kneeled in front of us on the wet lawn, the sounds of leather creaking. Even Kalian stopped crying.

Next the god removed his helmet, and shook his head, dark curls falling away from his grim yet handsome face.  
"Narinda? Didi?" he said.

I stared. I stared at that very face I had never thought I'd ever see again.  
"You!"


	2. Five days

**Five days**

Our little village of Salenda lied a bit off the main roads. It wasn't a regular tourist area even if it had a nice beach and a scenery well worthy of any paradise. No, Salenda was a small village of farmers and fishermen resting in a slow-paced time where the sun came up and went down over a few changes.

It was a silent place and it fitted me all too well after the turbulent years in Intorergon. Inthorergon, the city that never slept. Inthorergon, the city of light and excitement, a vibrant place which boosted your soul and made you feel so very alive - made you feel like you had become put down right in the middle of the world, such an action filled adventure was it to live there. Inthorergon was a city which assaulted its visitors with its noise, its colours and lights, its smells and its everlasting motion. A city which left no one unbothered - either you loved it or you hated it. A city which during my third year there handed me Lothan - not on a plate but on a likewise round dance floor in one of the many bars there. Lothan - who broke my heart!

It wasn't love at first sight but close enough. Lothan was handsome and debonair and he spent money from an inherited fortune, like he had no cares in the world. He was sexy, flirty and funny and carried himself with an absolutely irresistible charm. And he promised me paradise - or at least a magnificent villa in Arandan - the posh area norht west of Inthorergon. Together with Lothan I felt like the luckiest girl in the world and I saw our future in a bright, rosy hue. Until the day when I started to ask for more. Until the day I expressed my desire to have children, to create a family. To grow up and have a life for real.

I will never forget the reply I got from Loradan that day:  
"Do I look like a family man, Narinda? Do I look like someone to carry around crying, puking and peeing brats? And with you as a mother? Sorry, Narinda, you've been an enjoyable waste of time, but I more or less feel done with you now."  
"What do you mean - done with me?"  
"Ready to go further in my life."  
"Say - what?!"  
"You heard me."

At that moment I couldn't help telling him the truth he had refused to see - the truth about me. A few facts he ought to have understood if he just had bothered with taking a little closer look at who Narinda was - and not just se himself mirrored in my blue eyes. As it turned out - I scared him. That had saddened me even more, that he couldn't trust me and believe in my sincerity. I also understood that Lothan was unable to love - because he was unable to trust.

After the end of the relationship with Lothan I felt that I needed peace and quiet in my life. I needed to get away somewhere and lick my wounds, trying to come to the terms with the fact that the man I thought I loved had deceived me all the time. That our relation had been nothing more than a game for him. So when this job opportunity appeared I acted quickly, grabbed what I had and left the city and all the painful memories behind. And after travelling for a day and a night, not sure what to expect, I had come to a place which only one year earlier would have felt to me like too backwater, too uninteresting to even bother with.

But it was backwater I needed now, it was the slow pace of the countryside that would heal my soul. It was the flagrances of pines and roses and the salty air of the ocean which became my remedy. And the little white stone cottage with just two rooms and a kitchen. A rustic place which needed a kind and loving hand to repair the broken window blinds and tend the abandoned garden. It needed someone to start a fire in the fireplace, to chase away the damp cold and scare off the scurrying spiders the place was infested with. And it needed someone who slept there and woke in the morning with the red sun shining through the pines and painting squares on the fading wall papers. I never closed the blinds in the night, I needed to wake with the sun or I wouldn't wake at all.

I came to work in the village with a medic a decade older than I, Xena Tsauze. A widow, harsh but gentle when you got to know her. She was a student of Asklepios just like I was, but she had no healing abilities of her own, her skills lay with generations of knowledge, wisdom she had acquired from parents and grandparents even before she went to the school of medics. I in turn had just the school, my parents had never understood my traits, and had no idea why I had them. Why I could cure with my hands. After learning my secret in my early teens I had no reason to tell them. I left them alone and they left me alone, that was a fine deal. And I lived in the dorms, first in the temple of Athena, and then in the school of Asklepios in Karkheidon. Fine by me…

That was how my life eventually led me to this place. This little village of Salenda where the lighthouse burned in the night. After work I used to walk the beach down to the lighthouse and then back again. It was a nice walk, a walk for contemplation and relaxation. A walk where I sometimes found empty sea-shells to keep or some interesting driftwood I could use for something. I often fantasized of finding a message in a bottle. A letter from a ship wrecked somewhere or someone imprisoned in a fortress by the sea, just like Danae in the saga, she who had got a child together with Great Zeus. I used to make up stories about those imagined people who had thrown the bottled messages in the water, and how I got away to rescue them, becoming a hero of my own, just like some female Perseus or Heracles.

In the summers I usually took off my clothes and swam among the waves; let the salty sea wash off my soul as well as my body. Dived beneath the blue surface, admiring how the sea turned emerald below the surface and how rays of sunlight lit it up, glittering and glimmering on the sandy bottom as the waves meandered. The other seasons I was content with taking off my shoes and letting the waves kiss my feet.

I had been in Salenda for a bit more than a year when I met him. Down at that very beach which I was more or less considering my own. At least during the evenings when the sun sank in the west, painting burning avenues across the water.

He was there when I turned around a small cliff, sitting on top of a man-sized stone and looking out over the endless blue, the late evening sun shining off dark, slightly curly hair. Who was he? I had never seen him before and strangers seldom came to Salenda.

When I came closer, he turned, noticing me. His burning dark eyes made me stop and in a flowing motion he jumped off the stone and down on the sand. He was barefoot just like I was, I noted, and casually dressed in a bleached blue tunic held by a broad leather belt around slender hips. And he moved with a grace that was unusual for such a tall and muscular man, as if gravity was acting differently around him.  
"Hello there!" he said as he approached me. He had a deep, resounding voice of the kind you never heard from the men around here.  
"Hi!" I replied with a polite nod of my head.

"You're from here? " he asked. "From this village?"  
"From Salenda, yes."  
"Tell me, milady, where can a sole traveler like me get a decent meal and a good night's sleep?"  
"There's a tavern just up by the harbour." I nodded my head in that direction. "Nothing fancy but with good food, and they have rooms at the upper floor too. I know the owners, great people."

I noted that he carried no luggage, and I wondered where he kept that. At least a pair of shoes. As if he had read my mind he said:  
"I left my things up by that horizontal-growing pine." With a flowing gesture he indicated the unusual tree I used to sit on from time to time. "I was planning to take a swim but then I just remained sitting here, chasing runaway thoughts."

I smiled at his choice of words, I felt an intuitive liking for this man.  
"I'll walk you to the tavern," I offered, even if I had no doubt that he could find the way himself. "And I'll tell Vigar and Leronda to serve you the best they have."  
"That's very kind of you milady."  
"I'm Narinda." I held out a hand.  
"Arian" he said, grabbing it in a firm shake with an incredibly large hand. A workman's hand, and I wondered what he did. He had such an honest and open face, jacaranda eyes beneath long lashes and dark, defined brows. Olive skin and one single speck of darker pigmentation on top of his left brow. The cheeks and nose were chiseled almost into perfection and he had dimples and a cleaved chin. The lips were full without being soft and they looked used to smiles.

I'm a tall woman, but I was no match for this man who was tovering over me with almost two full heads. What could he be, something around seven feet tall, I pondered as I had to bend my neck to face him. My first impression was that he was just a few years past twenty, then I realized he had to be quite a bit older than that. It was there in his aura, the signs of immortality as well as the experience acquired through centuries. I had no idea what kind of god he was though. If any, there are after all a lot of immortals who never chose to become gods, but spend their long lives just living them.

I didn't ask Arian however, I waited silently while he picked up his things and put on a brown, fur-rimmed suede vest and his Greek style sandals. Then we began to follow the beach back to the village, walking just above the perimeter where the foamy waves crashed in and where the sand was still wet from the outgoing tide. The eastern sky was darkening and the first stars were coming out, like diamonds set in blue velvet. I felt that he was regarding me the same way I had checked him out, and I couldn't help wondering what he made out of it.  
"What brings you here?" I enquired after a few moments of silence.  
"I'm looking at the landscape here. Trying to figure out how it can be used for the project I'll be a part of in the near future."  
"You're an engineer of some kind?"  
"Not really. I'm more of a fore-runner. You might not know it but there is a war being initiated in the Alnéa."

"Yes, the Greeks want Losanara back. We get news here too, you know. You're with them?" I said, indicating his sandals and the way he carried his well worn, brown leather backpack. Very Greek style.  
"I am."  
"You don't look like a warrior to me though."  
"Looks can be deceiving, Narinda."

He didn't say more about the matter, instead he asked of me, where I lived and what I did, and I told him I was a healer and a medic and that I lived in the village, alone for the time being. There was no reason for hiding anything from him, after all he must have seen my immortality as well as I had seen his. I was a sorry excuse for an immortal, I admit. I was hardly anything more than a healer with the gift of eternal youth and some weak telekinetics. But I used what I had to help people because that was what gave my life meaning.

o¨*¨*¨o

"Cheers!" Our cups touched across the table.  
"And thanks for the meal" I went on.  
"You're welcome, that was the least I could do, there's nothing more dull than to dine alone, and when you have the opportunity to have a wonderful female companion, why not taking it?" Arian smiled again. He did that all the time and I was beginning to like it a lot.  
"You're flattering me!"  
"No, I'm just being completely honest."

"You know I like your style, Arian!" I said. "Too bad you're not staying." I felt almost sad upon uttering those words. Odd - I had known this man for just a bit more than two hours. But during these hours we had not only dined together, we had talked a lot. First about our professions, he had told about the wars he had been in and I had told him about healing. Then I told why I ended up here. I told about a relationship that shattered like glass, and which shards had pierced my heart. I had no idea what made me being so honest and open with Arian. But there was something candid emitting from him that generated trust.

"He was purely mortal" I told. "And when he found out who I was he freaked and threw me out of his home. Left me with nowhere to go, no one to rely on in the whole wide world. Left me lonely. Because I was not like him. Because I was immortal."  
"That happens, dear." He took my hand. "I've been there done that too. Being a war god makes it twice as hard to convince someone about meaning well."

In return Arian had told me about his love life which was hardly any better. After all falling in love with his sister in law must be some kind of all time low. Especially since Arian had always felt that his brother got all the goodies out of life, while he had to be content with the leftovers.  
"At least I got the looks" he had said. "And that's not bragging, I had rather taken the brains and the money."  
"Yet you have quite some looks" I grinned at him.

We had agreed that family life sucked, even if I hadn't told much more about mine. Nothing about my estranged parents. It still felt too painful to confess to a passing stranger.

"I'll walk you home." Arian said when the meal was finished.  
"Why, thank you!"

o¨*¨*¨o

It was a clear night with a thin crescent of a waxing moon hanging over the tree tops. When we had left the main village and were walking the little narrow path up to my house the only thing heard was the sounds of frogs and crickets. It was completely still and so calm and peaceful I could hardly imagine that there was another world outside. A world with bustling cities and crowded towns, a world with heavily trafficked roads. A world with wars.

But there was, and Arian was going to be in one. It saddened me for some reason.

The last few yards the path was so narrow that we almost had to walk hip by hip and I could feel the warmth of his body and the faint fragrances of him. It made me feel strange. Made my heart kick in another gear and my mind beginning to sway and I had to tell myself to get a grip. This was just a stranger and he would be gone - out of my life any minute.

"Here's my little place. Nothing fancy, but it's home."  
"It looks nice. I take a charming and welcoming cottage any day to an impersonal and cold palace. And I know, I've been in some."

I turned to the tiny house that glowed white in the dark, but Arian caught my shoulder, and pulled me towards him circling my waist with his large hands. The next moment his lips were upon me and his kiss didn't surprise me half as much as my own reaction. That I didn't back off but met him like it was the most natural thing in the world. As if we had been long time lovers and as if this kiss was just one in a lengthy string of similar ones, like pearls on a necklace. I felt attracted to this man, really attracted, and my instincts told me this was right. This was supposed to happen, even if it was unusual.

"I don't normally…"  
"Hush, Didi! This is no normal moment."  
"Didi?"  
"I like the ring to that endearment. May I call you Didi?"  
"Of course" I breathed.

Somehow we got inside. Somehow we found my bedroom and lost our clothes. And when he laid me down on my bed I was more than ready for him. I felt with my hands over his muscular back, felt the warmth of his breath upon my neck, his smell of sea and musky warm earth and of man. His smouldering tongue was tracing a line from my cheek down my neck and stopped for a second where my collarbones met. As if he knew how much I liked it when men kissed me there. Then he nibbled just a little bit. Tickled. Teased. Tongue and teeth. Teeth and tongue.

From there he ventured further down, took one of my nipples in his mouth and I moaned with passion, while I thread my fingers through his dark, silky curls. Arian! Dear heavens! It was like a dream and I didn't want to wake up. Not ever! He tasted the other nipple, circled it with a tongue like a feather before moving on. In return I opened up myself for him, not just my body but my soul as well while he took his time with fingers, lips and tongue. Took his time until I almost fainted from the wonderful torture. And when he finally entered me it was more than sex. It was a strange sensuality like nothing I had ever experienced before. A blending of souls. Was this what it felt like to make love to one of my own kind, another immortal? If so I had been a virgin up until now!

And he was large. Lothan and the other men I had been with earlier had nothing against Arian. The very size of him made me come. Once and then twice. And before he was done with me and released himself I had seen stars and sparkles in his arms. As if heaven was an option. But then he was a god after all…

o¨*¨*¨o

We got five days Arian and I. Five days from the morning he woke up in my cottage as the sun came in through the window. We were lying cramped together in my rather narrow bed and I almost giggled at his surprised look when he woke up.  
"I did seduce you, didn't I?" was the first thing he asked.  
"I think so. If it wasn't the other way around of course."

He chuckled and I asked if he was hungry or something.  
"Something," Arian replied.  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
"That I might seduce you again."  
"You're insatiable, aren't you?"  
"How can anyone be otherwise next to such a beauty?"

I blushed. I wasn't really a beauty. Youthful and healthy and with a strong and agile body that was true. But beautiful - not really. Not even Lothan had meant it when he had said it in the beginning of our relation, yet Arian sounded so intensely earnest. So we skipped breakfast. Instead I grabbed a fruit and ran off to work, handing my spare keys to Arian, wondering what made me trust him so much.

Anyhow I didn't get much work done, even Xena noted I was preoccupied and she told me to go home.

"Take a few days off, Narinda. You deserve it, you've been working so hard since you came here last year that I can hardly believe it. You deserve some quality time. Use it well! Now get outa here!"

I thanked her and ran off in the sun. Then I spent five wonderful days with Arian. We walked in the woods and down the beach, swam, talked and got to know each other. We sat by my fireplace in the evenings and pondered over life. And we made love of course. Not only in my cottage but in clearings in the woods and at the beach, kissed by waves, tried out every romantic cliché. We made meals together and ate them either in the house or as picnics during our long walks. And we laughed together like I have never laughed with anyone before. Arian had such a strong resounding and earnest laughter that it lit up my very soul, undid all the knots therein, as if he was a healer as well.

My fingers had traced every inch of his body, getting to know him until I felt I could recognize him blindfolded. I learned his fragrance and his sounds, not only when he talked or sang, but his breath in the night when he was asleep or his steps when he approached me from behind, trying to surprise me by tickling me by the neck or by the waist. I had lived and breathed and felt Arian. He had been mine and I had been his for that brief and wonderful amount of time. And I had cherished every second of it.

But all good things come to an end and when the sun set on the fifth day Arian had admitted that reality was calling him back.  
"Tomorrow I must be on my way, Didi. But I promise, we'll see each other again. Don't know where, don't know when but you have my word."

I had cried and he had held me and we had spent one last bittersweet night together.


	3. Fruit of love

**Fruit of love**

Then he was gone. And fall came early that year. It was hardly September when the mornings were starting to get chilly and in the end of the month the leaves turned yellow and were falling and the ocean got too cold for baths. And persistent news of the war was reaching us.

All the time I kept repeating Arians last words to myself over and over again.  
"I will return, Didi, I promise."

I will return, I will return, I will return, I will return, I will return, Iwillreturn, I will I will I will. Didi I promise….

But when would that happen? I forced those speculations to the back of my mind, since they were doing no good and dug into reality again. I returned to work and to life and my friends and the thatching that needed to be fixed on my house and all the other things that were calling for my attention. I also realized that the war was on everybody's lips these days. Some of the youths from the village ran away from home and joined one or the other side of the warring parties. Since Salenda was still on neutral ground we didn't really have to bother with that war, but there were so many young people, men mostly, who dreamed of adventures. Of glory and heroic deeds. And who resented the boring village and its sleepy life.

Since we were closer to Greece both geographically and culturally most of those runaway youths went to the Greeks but one or two went east instead and joined the Anatolians. And younger children held their own 'wars' in the streets and in the woods, cheering for their favourite team, like it was some kind of sports event.  
"Stupid kids," Xena said. "But they'll learn when they get older. They learn what war is about and then they return home and regret that they didn't become accountants or carpenters instead."

Xena had fought when she was younger, yet she never talked about it. However she had some terrible scars to remind her of those years, one on her tight and another on the upper left arm. And then a minor one just where her graying hair met the neck, something she tried to hide with innovative hairdos.

I remembered what Arian had said about war. It was seldom glorious and hardly heroic, most of the time it was dirty and filthy and gory. At best parts it was boring.  
"Waiting is one thing you learn as a soldier" he had told me. "Waiting for the enemy or for reinforcements or supplies or for food or for the night or for the morning or a change in the weather. Or something entirely else which might matter."  
"Why are you in it then, if it holds nothing of what all those people are dreaming about?" I had asked him.

"It's because I'm good at it," he had replied. "That's what I do."  
"Has it no benefits then?" I asked, not really knowing what reply to expect.

"Yes it has. It sharpens your senses and forces you to live in the now. It does contain this glory and those moments of heroism everybody is talking about. But only now and then. And solely for those few who gives it all and who are lucky enough to not be at the wrong place at the wrong time. And a war is filled to the brim with wrong places and wrong times so it's really hard to get lucky. Although it helps a bit being immortal," Arian had chucked, not without a healthy portion of self-irony.  
"Then what about the glory?"  
"That's when you manage to stop the advancing enemies. And save lives, protect the civilians you are sworn to protect. That's where the glory is. Seldom in the killing itself. But when you liberate a village hold under siege or cut off the advancing enemies by destroying a bridge, then glory comes your way with her rare gifts. Or just when you get a wounded comrade out of the heat and preferably into the medic's tent."

"But I can't deny that war holds other allures" he had continued. "The excitement, the adrenaline rush of the battle or a raid, the feeling of superiority when you outsmart and defeat your enemy. These are the moments you live for and wait for during the boring periods."

Those were the words of wisdom you only got from the one who had lived war. Who knew it in and out like Arian did and who could relate to what it was like. I so wondered where he was these days, my beloved. What he did.

I tried to scry for him, pouring negative-ionic water in a silver bowl - one of the most potent scrying devices there is. But I had no luck. Either was I too rusty or the war too filled with conflicting energies swaying to and from because I only got disturbances, pictures upon pictures of crossing blades, dying people, blood and gore. Corpses from which vultures and crows were feeding. Wounded people crying out in pain and fear of death. Maddened horses without riders bolting mindlessly. All kinds of things being on fire. And nowhere was my Arian to be found. Nowhere in this mad melee of terror, of horrifying slaughter and maiming. So I gave up trying, because the scrying sessions only making me sad and nauseous.

o¨*¨*¨o

Then one early morning I woke up feeling sick and was off to the bathroom in a blink of an eye, heaving up my dinner.  
"Darn lobster" I cursed. "I thought it tasted foul. If Malizza wasn't so kind she'd get to hear this!"

But it wasn't the lobster I had bought at Malizza's little store. Far from it. I learned it soon enough, something else was happening to me. And it wasn't an illness either, most of those my immortal body would defeat even before they became notable, whatever they were caused by viral attacks or bad food. It was… Kalian.

Yes, it was a Kalian. A boy. I felt it as clearly as I felt the chill of the window glass against my forehead when I leaned forwards; gazing out over the unruly, gray sea beneath an overcast sky. The name Kalian came to me so naturally. Almost like my son had told it to me.

I hadn't even thought about becoming pregnant during those wonderful days spent with Arian. There had been such a completely different set of emotions going on in my mind at that time. After all it happens so seldom that mortal seed catches with immortal eggs. The other way around is so much more common. So I had more or less disregarded that possibility long time ago, and Arian being a god didn't change old habits.

So there I was with a baby coming along and the father away at the front. Thus I felt all confused when I understood what was the matter. Happy and delighted of course. But it was a happiness blended with a bitter grain of sadness in my chest as well. A sadness matching the weather, the falling rain outside the window. It wasn't like I couldn't take care of a child myself, being a single mother didn't bother me that much. I had more money than enough tucked away from my workaholic years and I had a lot of good friends I could rely on. Beside Xena and Malizza there were Irdama and her husband Nandran and old Merinna who had sold me the house and her son Handar the fisherman. I knew that Merinna had hoped for me to tie up with Handar, but that was not going to happen. All right, I liked Handar in a friendship kind of way, but as a man he was not really my kind.

On the other hand it's hard to tell how and why someone might be 'your kind'. It's nothing you might put a finger on and say 'this is it'. It's more like something in the air. A feeling. Besides being another immortal Arian was hardly radically different from any other man I've met - I had after all met quite a few minor gods in my years. Men who were doing their little thing in their little part of the world and were content with that. Never any big ambitions, never any special reason for turning me on. Or off.

Therefore it was so odd that I had been so heavily attracted by Arian. Because he was just a soldier, just a forerunner who was checking out the vicinity, judging the best way for the armies to marsh. (And they would not come here, so much did I learn from Arian, too much swamplands and rough woodlands.) I guessed my feelings for him had to do with his honesty and his willingness to talk. I had never liked silent men; I wanted them to open up their mind and to share. And that was just what Arian had done.

Now I wanted him here with me. I wanted Arian to come back and be here for me and to see his son. I didn't want to be alone in this. Still I knew that it was such a slight chance that he might return so soon, he was tied up with his life and I with mine. And I was not going into a war zone with an infant, being it an immortal or not. Because gods do die. It rarely happened, but immortality was after all just about the absence of age and deceases. A blade could kill; gods have killed each other enough times. There had even been mortals killing gods, even if that rarely happened. So I was not taking any chances. We were best off here, me and my unborn child.

I told Xena the next day and she looked at me like she had known it all the time.  
"It was that large dark-haired man you were with, right?" When I nodded mutedly she went on: "Who was he anyway? You never told me about him, although I could tell that he was not from around. He carried himself so different. Was he one of your old urban friends who came for a visit?"  
"Xena, that's a lot of questions," I stalled.  
"Of course. And if you just have one answer I'd be pleased."

I smiled at my friend who was sorting out and weighing herbs and ointments at the large table in the clinic and putting them into small bottles or textile bags, as she was talking.  
"He's a warrior. A Greek soldier. He came here briefly and it was just a fling."  
"And you thought nothing of protection?"  
"That's true" I blushed as I sat down and started to help her.  
"Oh, the recklessness of youth!"  
"Xena I'm hardly young anymore, I'm going on 40. Fast."

"So you considered this being your last chance then? To use that unknowing Greek as a sperm donor?"  
"It's more complicated than that" I said. Xena knew nothing about my immortality that was something I wanted to keep to myself, because I had no intention of becoming a goddess. I didn't want to be worshiped. I just wanted a normal life with normal friends in a normal place.

"Don't look at me like that", Xena complained. "I'm not blaming you. Not a bit. After all we all want to procreate. And you told me about that asshole whatshisname you left behind in Inthorergon."  
"Lothan."  
"Yeah that was his name. He didn't deserve a bit to father your child. Guess it might be better this way. We'll be here for you, I and Malizza and the rest. And if the lad grows up and wants to know about his father you might as well say he died in that war. After all these things happen."

I smiled slightly. I've always liked Xena's straightforward and unpolished no-nonsense reasoning. She was so down to earth, as if she was the very foundation for us other girlies to hold on to when it stormed.

"What if he returns?" I asked.  
"Do you think he might?"  
"I… I don't know."

When I heard myself say that I realized it was true. The first weeks after his departure I had felt so certain that Arian would come back one day. That one morning come he would come knocking on my door and say that the war was over and here he was for me again. But as the weeks and then the months had passed I had felt less and less certain, even if I knew that the war could last for years and years. But it was like the dizzy bliss of the first weeks had been replaced with a more realistic view. What if he really didn't care the way he said he had. What if he was just in it for some company and some sex. After all a lot of men were like that. Including Lothan Asshole. What if he had a million girls in a million villages just like me. And an army of babies he didn't know about…

I was reminded of Lothan, and his very disinterest in me as a person. How everything really had been about him, him, him all the time we had been together, something I have failed to see until that very last bitter day when it all became so obvious. Were all men like that? Where they all selfish punks who were only involved for some horizontal entertainment? Arian had seemed different during our short days together. He had seemed like he really cared. He had appeared as if he was actually interested in me as a person and he had acted as if my opinion had really mattered. Or had he just been a better actor than the rest?

Then I bit my lips and urged myself to be strong. After all Arian had left me with a way to reach him.

Army Postal Service. The way to contact soldiers at the front by mail. I had his name but most of all I had a code number. Because in a war with thousands and thousands of soldiers names were not sufficient. You couldn't keep track on all Achilles and Aias and Hippolytia and Leonidas and Alexander and Iolas and Electra and whatever the Greeks called themselves.

So the Greeks had invented something they called 'military security number' and every man or woman who joined their ranks was assigned a number, which was stored at some headquarter somewhere. They also carried that number on a dog-tag around their neck. Arian had showed me his and told me how it worked.  
"If I die" he had told, "they take this number and send the dog-tag back to my family and they can know for sure that I'm gone even if the funeral pyre may burn at the front."  
"Nonsense, you're not going to die!"  
"Well all right, that chance is slim for an immortal, but you get the picture."

What felt more important for me at the moment though, was that you could write a letter and address it to that very number, and eventually - or rather hopefully - that solder might get his letter. I've never been that good at writing letters, mostly because I have seldom had anyone to write them to. So now I just composed a few matter of fact lines telling Arian about my pregnancy, that I had learned that it was a boy and that I had given him the name Kalian. Then I finished it all with an 'I miss you Arian'. And I hoped he missed me at least half as much.

o¨*¨*¨o

Rivan the thatcher was a jovial, talkative man who kept my mind occupied all the three days he was working on my roof. He always had things to tell and other things to ask, and faith knows if he wasn't even a bit flirty even if he was married and had as much as seven kids, all as blond and freckled as he. But he fixed not only my leaking roof he picked up my mood too with his stories and jokes.  
"Them Greeks" he said at one time. "They go off to war all looking so brave, but when the going gets tough they all wanna run home to mama and hide under her colourful skirts."

I laughed in spite of remembering that Arian was Greek.

"And I bet they all would, if it wasn't for that god", Rivan went on as he came down the ladder to pick up more supplies. His voice had suddenly got a serious edge to it.  
"What god?" I asked, leaning against the wall, catching the sun of what was probably one of the last warm autumn days.  
"That sonufabitch Ares. He's a real maniac they say."  
"Their war god?"  
"Yeah, he's one blood thirsty bastard. And he pushes his men in front of him, never relenting. The maniac takes joy in killing, marring and slaughtering. A day without blood ain't a good day to him. And those who deserts he hunts down as merciless as the enemies."

"That sounds like someone to stay away from then", I smiled trying to ease up the mood after the outburst of what could best be described as anger from Rivan. Something really unusual from a man hardly known for raising his voice.  
"Hear me, you better do that, Narinda. You're a smart girl, if them Greeks come here you pack your stuff and off you go!"  
"Why would they come here? To this desolate place?"  
"You never know. They're a wants-it-all gang. And their gods are the same."

"Most of their gods are ours too, Rivan."  
"But not that Ares."  
"No, perhaps not," I sighed and stroke my slightly rounded belly. Without wanting it the least to my brain revived the horrors I'd seen when I made my failed attempt to scry for my beloved out there, and those dreadful images sent shivers down my spine. Then I changed subject fast, starting to talk about the upcoming November fiesta instead. For some reason talking about Ares made me feel uncomfortable. Almost like an itching and prickling feeling against my neck. Almost as if he could hear us.

o¨*¨*¨o

Winter came and went and my secret couldn't with any reason remain a secret anymore. So I told everyone who wanted to know that the father was a travelling research soldier with whom I had had a short affair. I also explained that I was not even sure if he knew about the child I carried even if I had written to him.  
"We would have done this the right way," I told Irdama and Nandran, "but a war got in the way."  
"Darn wars," Nandran cursed. "I bet no one really wants them so the question is why are we having them really?"  
"He'll come back to you when the war is over," Irdama said, taking my hand. "I know that!"  
"I hope so." I said, not feeling so much sure anymore. I just hoped he had got my letters. After all I had written him several, just in case. Hoping dearly that at least one would've reached him.

o¨*¨*¨o

Kalian was born on a warm day in the beginning of April. He came with the cherry blossoms and the migrating birds. A big boy they said, although he felt so tiny in my arms. His head was covered with a thick mane of dark hair and his brown eyes looked upon me with a strength and curiosity I had hard to fit in with such a little child. It was if he held wisdom way beyond even my years.

And I cried tears of joy.

When the night came and the midwife and Xena had left I rested in my bed looking at the twig marks in the wooden ceiling whispering:  
"Arian, I wish you'd been here."

And then I almost thought I heard it. A faint voice answering in the still of the night.  
"Didi! I wish so too."


	4. A lock of hair

**A lock of hair**

I celebrated Kalian's one year birthday with a party for my friends and for their children. Including a handful other mothers who I had learned to know just because they too had had babies around the same time as me. Now the little ones were tumbling around in the grass, wrestling and chasing each other, chatting and laughing, all very good natured. And although my little darling was precocious and tall there was no one who thought it was something strange about him. No one knew that we were immortals he and I.

No one but Xena, in a special moment I had told her my secret. She had wondered about a fast-healing cut I had received and I felt it was only fair that the one who had become my best friend and who had supported me in so much should know who I really was. Xena had taken it unexpectedly cool.  
"You know I suspected something like that, but I didn't want to push you. I knew that given time you'd tell me."  
"Arian was a god too."  
"Some war god I take it."  
"That's true. A scout god connected to the Greek army. A fore runner."  
"They have so many gods, those Greeks."

Now Xena was standing over in the shadow and talking to Irdama and a woman named Sirna, who had a daughter just a few months older than Kalian. And I was cutting up more of my pies and serving them. People were gorging them, something that flattered me a lot.

When all were served with pie and lemonade I poured a glass for myself and stood watching my son for a while. He was so beautiful and agile and full of lust for life. He was shining, sparkling and his laughter was rolling up towards the tree tops, the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. His first black hair had fallen off and become replaced with dark blond curls of the kind that would turn brown when he grew up. A week ago I had cut off one of those locks, tied a tiny ribbon around it and mailed it to Arian.

Army Postal Service. I hope you get it my dear. I so wish you do!

o¨*¨*¨o

There were other letters sent off to the front, letters in which I told about Kalian. How wonderful he was. How he was constantly surprising me, challenging me and making me laugh. He was full of tricks and ideas. Clever, bright and with a sense of humor I never would have guessed such a little one to be capable of. Add to that his never ending curiosity, his everlasting questions. He wanted to know the name of everything he saw, he asked why dogs were dogs, cats were cats, horses were horses and cows were cows. He enquired about every flower, every bug and every item in the household. He wanted to know the reason for rain and for the sun and the moon to rise and for the stars to come out in the night. He was curious about other people's doings, habits and looks in a very straightforward way - which could even become embarrassing from time to time if we were overheard. Then again most people know about the honesty of children and mostly smiles at questionable comments.

Kalian was fascinated by that bright comet we saw in the night when he was a bit more than one year old, and he was delighted when he spotted rainbows, halos and sundogs in the sky. He pondered over the things to be found by the sea, and every time we returned home from a walk he had collected a set of odd stones, sea-shells, fir cones, deer antlers, mushrooms and other things he found in the nature.

Then came that day when he asked about his father for the first time. During my working hours Kalian was staying with a nanny I had learned to know trough Xena - Irazna. The young woman sometimes brought Kalian to her own family, where Kalian could play with her little brothers Revlin and Noran. One day their father Telarin, the fisherman, had taken Irazna and the boys on board his boat for a ride. That evening when I came to collect my son he wanted to know where his father was.  
"He's in the war." I said and then I had to explain what a war was. But how do you do that to a fifteen month old? I guess I said something about people arguing and that it would take some time before they were done with that because they were arguing over big issues. The knots you tied on your own explanations sometimes!

Then two nights later Kalian said something very strange. He pointed out one of the planets in the sky.  
"There's dad!" he said. "There's were my father is!"  
"Up there?" I asked, consternated.  
"Yeah - that star. He's there!"

I looked again - it was the red planet. The knight. The planet they called 'War Star' in the west. I had never told him about these things, I had simply called it Mars, the name people around here used. How very peculiar!

o¨*¨*¨o

In the nights I dreamt of Arian, I saw him fighting battle after battle, sometimes out on the endless steppes of Alnéa under the burning sun and sometimes in the Anatolian mountains, facing biting snow storms and crossing narrow tracks where you never knew if an ambush awaited you around the next cliff outcropping. In my dreams I saw him kill, that was the worst thing of all. Fast and efficient slicing trough cadres of men with sharp blades, one in each hand. His eyes were empty during those sequences. Devoid of emotions and thoughts, like he had disconnected his soul. Perhaps that was what war did to people.

I wondered if he ever was going to come back to me, my vibrant, beautiful beloved. If I was ever going to see him again. If he knew he had a son…

During those days I had started to collect news about the war. The Greeks were winning it and they were coming here. My first reaction had been one of joy; I hoped it might mean that Arian would return. Then a more sensible part of me had told me that it was more than likely that some other Greeks would come around. They were perhaps not as benevolent as my beloved had been those days before the real war had started.

Then one evening when Xena and I dined at Nandran and Irdama's place, our host had told of the Dark Warriors.

These fighters were the fiercest, maddest, strongest and wildest of the Greeks. The elites of Ares himself. Where they went they left terror and disaster in their wake. Burnt villages, raped women, dead children. All in the name of their war-crazed god.  
"You'll recognize them when they come," the normally so laid-back farmer said with a tense voice. "They are all dressed in black save for Ares himself who wears red and gold. Ares will ride in front of his militia on a white stallion as large as two ordinary horses. A stallion which breathes fire and feeds on meat. And Ares no mortal man can beat. He's as invincible as he's blood thirsty. So when they come every reasonable people run and hide."

"You can't be serious!" I replied, looking at the solemn, blond man who sat next to me in the living room sofa with one strong arm around the shoulders of his wife Irdama. We had just finished a delicious dinner consisting of grilled lamb, fresh vegetables, newly baked bread and that goat yoghurt sauce everyone around here ate and which I had learned to love as well. It was a warm and cozy evening and talking about the war felt so out of place that I wondered how we really had arrived at the subject. On the other hand the war was what everyone was talking about these days. Worrying about the approaching Greeks, their huge numbers and renowned fighting skills. How they were steadily advancing deeper into these lands that once had been theirs but were now since half a century held by the Anatolians. How the Greeks were celebrated as liberators in some places and seen with fear in other. How we in our little borderland village felt scared and uncertain. Not to mention that we were conserned about Ares. Their dreadful god of war.

"Trust him he is," Xena said. "I have seen them. To be true, more than that! I actually fought Ares once. He…" Xena lifted her skirt and showed that fearsome scar. "He did this to me. I could hardly walk for a week after it. I stitched the leg myself and I had nightmares of that god for months after the event. They still haunt me now and then to be true, even if it was a long time since the last one."  
"When was the last time you dreamt?" Irdama asked.  
"Oddly enough the day Kalian was born. I haven't told about this, because it was so terrible. But I saw Ares standing outside Narinda's house, and it looked like he was about to go inside. "

"Really!" I held a hand to my chest, feeling myself becoming pale, something contracting inside of me. Irdama saw it too.  
"Nari, it was only a dream. Nothing to worry about."  
"Sometimes dreams are messages" I replied faintly, stroking the soft hairs of my son who slept so soundly in my lap.  
"But this one wasn't," Xena said, sounding almost angered. "It was just my overheated brain putting together my willingness to defend the child of a great friend together with one of my greatest fears beside the purple plague, the awful Ares."  
"I won't let him touch my child," I said, trying to sound braver than I was. Still in my mind I wondered what I would do about such a thing. I wasn't even an adequate fighter; my life was dedicated to medicine and healing.

"Well, if he should happen to come around, just tell him Kalian's father is Greek." Irdama said matter of fact. "Which makes the boy basically Greek too. That ought to do it, after all the god wouldn't want to bring any harm to a possible future recruit!"

"You make so much sense, Iri. You always do!" I smiled with relieve. It was as if a stone has fallen from my chest. But Xena still held that wrinkled forehead. The dream was haunting her, I could tell.

So when we walked home in the night, I urged her:  
"Tell! Perhaps I can help."  
"I don't know. This is something I must deal with myself."  
"Xena, how long was it since you fought Ares?"  
"25 years. I was just a kid. A stupid brat who longed for power and glory and went up against something I couldn't handle. I went up against Ares, thought I could match him. Such a gung-ho idiot was I!"

"That was then, this is now. You're a medic now. Doing your thing. You have nothing to do with war and war gods anymore."  
"I wish that was true, Nari. In spite, sometimes I get the feeling - that he'll show up one day, to finish what he started."  
"But he defeated you, right? Why would he hold grudges? After all he must've defeated tens of thousands in his days, and he's probably not even keeping track anymore. I bet Ares wouldn't even remember you if he so should crash right into the clinic one day."

Xena laughed, no doubt at the almost comic vision she must have got in her mind at my words. I giggled too.

"Nevertheless," Xena began, sounding dead serious again. "If the Greeks starts heading in this direction I'll be going east. Darangorlad is neutral, and they are receiving war victims every day. Wounded soldiers and civilians from both sides. They are crying out for doctors. I'll go there if necessary. Would you come with me then, Narinda?"  
"I… I'll have to think about it."  
"Of course you'll have to think it over, leaving home is not an easy thing to do. So take your time, Nari."

"I've left home before, plenty of times. If the war comes here I might just do it again. But we'll see what happens. Maybe the Greeks head north instead."  
"The Anatolian war god - their Taniroth - Ares has wanted to fight him for centuries. I think the Greeks'll go where he might be lurking. At least Ares and his Dark Warriors."  
"May it be so, because Taniroth ain't here," I smiled.

We parted outside the clinic, where Xena lived on the upper floor, said our good nights and see you tomorrow's. Then I went on home, carrying my sleeping son in my arms. A little benefit with being immortal - carrying a heavy fourteen months old child didn't bother me the slightest, not even up the hill to where I lived.

Halfway up my little path I stopped and stared at the moon crescent. It reminded me of how it had looked that night when Arian had walked me home the first time. And once again I whispered to the wind.  
"I so wish you were here."

And once again I almost felt his presence, his huge form against me. Or was it just a fidget of my vivid imagination. Just as the whispers around me in the wind  
"So do I, Didi beloved…"

o¨*¨*¨o

Two years later it was more or less a fact. The Greek army was marching towards our coast. They wanted the harbours and the fortresses here, because then they would have the Anatolians cornered in, with their backs to the ocean. And I had already made up my mind. I was going with Xena. For the safety of my Kalian.

The last thing I did before closing up the house was writing another letter to Arian telling him where we were heading. When I posted it tears came to my eyes. Because if he didn't get this letter, if he came here again and I was gone we might as well never find each other again, since Darangorlad was cornered off, and the mail communications with Greece and Anatolia were nonexistent.

Army Postal Service. One last chance.

o¨*¨*¨o

Ares put aside his weapon and kneeled in front of us on the wet lawn, the sounds of leather creaking. Even Kalian stopped crying.

Next the god removed his helmet, and shook his head, dark curls falling away from his grim yet handsome face.  
"Narinda? Didi?" he said.

I stared. I stared at that very face I had never thought I'd ever see again.  
"You!"

"And this must be Kalian," he turned to my son. "I got your letters, Didi. I got the lock of hair you sent me." The war god reached inside of his armor and clothes and pulled out a charm he wore around his neck. "I carry it with me all the time. Let me see your face, Kalian."

In the corner of my eyes I saw Kalian hiding at my shoulder, but upon Ares' words he looked up:  
"I know you. You're that killer god all the people talk about. Have you come to kill us?"  
"No, I've come to carry the two of you into safety."

At those words the stress took its toll and I broke down. The tears started to run down my cheeks at Ares' kind words, because they were such a stark contrast to all the terror around us. Yet most of all I cried over the comprehension. Over understanding who my love belonged to. Who was the father to my son. Ares - the dreaded god of war!

Arian… Ari… Are… Ares… God of war!

"Didi, it's okay." He took me in his arms, me and Kalian, one leather clad arm around my son as well. Our son. "It's okay now, I'll take you away from here, agapi-mou! It'll be fine, just fine."

"Ari… Ares? How did you… " I leant against his firm chest, he reeked of war and terror. Blood, sweat, smoke, leather and dirt. Still beneath all that was the smell I remembered, even after all those years. The smell of - him. Arian. Ares. Without thinking I put my left arm around him, although I could only feel hard and grimy armor, returning the affection.  
"How I found you. Easy enough. I knew where you were all the time. Locating people is one of my major divine traits. So I thought I'd come here when the war was over, and then I would bring flowers instead of terror. But the Anatolians arrived first and then we had to come too - to 'liberate' the poor Darangorladians. A foul thing to do, attacking a neutral country."

He let go after a few moments. Kalian was still looking at him with his big dark eyes, and it hit me how much alike they were. Same dark curls, even if Kalian's were some nuances paler, same almond-shaped eyes and same cleaved chin.  
"You know my mom?" Kalian was staring intensely at Ares.  
"I do. And I hope to get to know you too, lad."

"I don't. You kill people." Kalian stated sourly.  
"That happens, yes," Ares said. "I'll tell you all about it later. But not here and now. There's still Anatolians around, plenty of them. We got to get going now. I wouldn't want you to become caught up in a skirmish."

Then he turned to one of his Dark Warriors, they had posted themselves around us like an impenetrable shield, not letting any enemy fighter coming near, even if one should be reckless enough to dare.  
"Amaranth! Get my chariot!" Ares ordered before addressing the rest of the warriors. "Zendar's squad has established a headquarter in the centre of the town by now. We're going there immediately. The lady and the boy are coming too. Make sure there's privacy for them, Meliklea! Make also sure there's food. "

One of the warriors to the left of us made a snapping salute. That soldier was not as tall and bulky as the rest, and looking at the silhouette again I realized it was a woman. Meliklea. Then Ares turned to a swarthy and burly man who was almost as tall as himself:  
"Achilles, you take Anaxadorus and Agakar with you and check out the Anatolians! See what they are doing, where they have set up their headquarter! But don't engage! Don't fight if you don't get attacked! And if you do get attacked, kill fast and clean so your little excursion remains a secret. Then come back and report directly to me!"

"Aye aye sir!" Achilles said and he too saluted Ares. I recognized his aura for the man who first had intercepted me in the park, he seemed to be working hard to live up to the status of the legendary hero he had been named after.

Raising Ares held out his hands and helped us up. And I faced him with turmoil in my soul. There I was, regarding the very man I had dreamt about for six years, recalling in an instance those few short fantastic days we had spent together in lovely Salenda, in what felt like another world, another time. A paradise so far from this harsh reality of carnage and atrocities. There I was looking into beautiful brown eyes filled with love, worry, determination and a plethora of other emotions. Brown eyes I had longed so much to see again. And - there I was looking at the god who had become the nightmare for so many people. The god who had inflicted so much dread, so much trepidation and hatred. The god who had once almost killed my best friend.

My mind wanted to protest against what my eyes were seeing. Was this really Ares - the dreadful killing machine so many people had fled? Was this the horrible god who had killed and maimed so many and laid waste to so much and who every reasonable soul had told me to run from. Whatever, running was not an option anymore. There was nowhere to run to anymore and even if it had been, a part of me wanted to do anything but run. That part of me wanted to stay, to hope, to trust in the man I had once trusted so very very much. The one my heart still told me to trust. The one my heart still loved. The father to my son! I knew not what to do...


	5. Headquarter

**Headquarter**

The man called Amaranth returned with a large and impressive four horse chariot, and as if it was the most natural thing in the world Ares helped me and Kalian aboard. I was still in shock over the realization of Arian's true identity; luckily enough Kalian seemed quite a bit better off. He "wow"-ed at the vehicle and looked hard at Ares, as if trying to figure the god out.  
"Why are we going with him?" he whispered as we entered the chariot.  
"Because he's a friend." I said. "I know it doesn't look that way right now, but we can trust him."  
"He's got a cool ride anyhow, so he can't be all that bad."

Ares had heard the last sentence and he smiled at Kalian before he took the reins with his large, leather-glowed hands. And off we went, downtown in a haste few could match. I almost feared, clutching the railing and my son, but Kalian's mood changed the way it only can with a five year old.  
"Yihaaaa!" he yelled while we passed scattered groups of people at the sidewalk outside the park. I saw them turn their heads after us, recognizing the war god, and I saw the collective fear they radiated - and how that fear was traded in for relief as we passed them by. Ares didn't pay them a single second of attention though - he was looking at Kalian and smiling. It was pride in his dark eyes and that made strange things to my heart.

o¨*¨*¨o

The headquarter had been set up in a haste and you saw it. Even if this was well disciplined militia, used to what they were doing it was still a mess in the apartment on the second and third floor of an abandoned office building. There were goods being unpacked everywhere, mostly arms but also medical supplies, food, clothes, work tools, office items, bed materials, towels and a lot of gadgets I had no idea what use they served. There were at least forty people in the large apartment, and Ares spared a word or two with everyone he met, patting people on their shoulders and offering advices and encouragement.

I was surprised; the Greek god of war didn't at all appear like the brute everyone including Xena had pictured him as. He was more like the man I had met all those years ago in Salenda. Frank, honest and with an eye for details. He commented on some things being done, pointed out windows in need of being defended and escape paths which should be cleared out. And the soldiers - a majority of them not Dark Warriors but ordinary men and women in arms - treated him with respect of a kind that does not come with fear but with trust. I realized it had been enemy words I've heard. Enemies of the Greeks and of Ares who felt the need to point the god out as a monster.

Then I wondered what had become of Xena. Had she made it? Was she in hiding somewhere? I figured I had to find her. And somehow make sure she was safe, without involving Ares. There was also my neighbor Tirna, Kalian's nanny. I needed to find out how she was faring too. But all that would have to wait until the streets of Darangorlad were safer.

Finally the war god led us into a row of rooms on the top floor. They lay in the middle of the apartment, only one with a window but near a fire exit. The Amazon who had followed us with her arms full of necessities put those down on a table.  
"Thank you, Cleodice!" Ares said and she bowed to the god, smiling as gently as she could with that foul scar marring an otherwise pretty face. After her came a young man, with the profession chef written all over him, carrying a large tray loaded with all kind of goodies. Laying my eyes upon that treat I realized I was starving.

However we had washed us selves first, using the large buckets with hot water someone had placed here before our arrival. I helped Kalian and then I cleaned myself as well, splashed water all over my body, using soap and a sponge to clear off grime and dirt. It felt wonderful to finally become clean. And it gave me as well a few moments to catch up, to come to terms with the events of the night. Including the fact that the man I loved was no other than the Greeks' fierce and feared god of war.

While looking at him in the corner of my eye, I found that it didn't matter. It didn't matter what people said about him, because I had seen another side of Ares. A noble, intelligent and kind man. A man I had come to hold dear to my heart. The father to my son. And it was still him standing there in the soft, yellow light of the kerosene lamp Cleodice had left with us.

Ares had stripped off almost all his clothes. Standing only in his loincloth he reminded me of why I had daydreamed about him every single day for all those years. He did look the same, almost nothing had changed. Still that magnificent, well-muscled body, long legs, firm abdomen and broad shoulders. And those large hands I remember being so strong and yet so tender in the touch. And that smile! I sure remembered that smile, so sincerely joyful! He was smiling it now as he was finishing his cleaning with washing off his feet. He was a bit more tanned and his hair was a lot longer than it had been back in Salenda, that was the only real differences.

He still wore that dog tag around his neck. Army Postal Service! And next to it the charm that held Kalians lock of hair. Ares had been oddly silent all the time, almost looking shy. Then when he had toweled himself off he sat down on the coach, looked at me and Kalian with a serious face and said:  
"I guess I owe both of you quite an explanation. Didi, I'm sorry, I should have told you who I was already back six years ago, but…"

I crossed the two feet up to the god and sat down next to him, putting a finger to his full lips.  
"It's okay, Ares." I said. "You can tell now. Everything. Including letting Kalian know who you are."  
"I already know," Kalian said and put on the clean tunic Cleodice had brought him. It was a bit small and he didn't look comfortable in it. "You're that war god who hurt Xena. The one everyone is afraid of. Can I eat some now? I am really hungry."

"Of course you can," both of us said at the same time, and we had hardly finished the sentence when Kalian turned around, grabbed a large tomato and a slice of bread and started munching. A bit worried there would be nothing left for us we too dug in. But the chef had been familiar with Ares' huge appetit and spared nothing, so there was enough on those plates to make at least me more than full. First we didn't say anything; we were too busy filling our stomachs. And seldom had anything tasted as good as this supper of all and nothing. There were meat, bread, pies, fruit, cheese, eggs, fish and seafood and water, juice and wine to wash it all down with. And an extraordinary sample of the ever-present Greek yoghurt sauce. I had to compliment that little chef later I figured.

"Kalian," Ares said and put down the rest of his - what was it fourth or fifth goose drumstick. Our son looked up. "Did your mother tell you about your father?"

Kalian wrinkled his brow, getting that look he always had when he was thinking hard on something.  
"She said he went to that war, but that he was coming back when it was over. He was… It's you, right?"

It was like an inner light had lit up Ares' face upon those words, his eyes were sparkling.  
"That's true!"  
"Cool!" Kalian was using his favourite word again.  
"You're a smart one. Kalian! How'd you guess?"  
"Well… Mommy seems to know you quite well. The way Sani and Dukhar know each other. That's Lukron's parents. Lukron's my best friend. And mommy say my dad went to the war and then you came from the war. Besides, you're the only god around besides us, so it has to be you!"

"Are you sure this is not Athena's son?" Ares smiled.  
"What, are you kidding?" I laughed.  
"Who's Athena?" Kalian wanted to know.  
"She's my sister. She' a warrior too, and really bright. But she's not around here, she's somewhere in the far West. Last time I heard she was meddling with a big river flooding her enemy's camp. She's great, even if she and I always seem to be competing. You'll meet her one day."  
"Looking forward." Kalian said. Then he yawned and I suddenly realized it had been quite a long day for a five year old and we were far beyond both his and my normal bedtime now.

"Now dear, we better put you to bed before you fall asleep with your face in the dirty dishes," I said. Kalian looked at me and then at Ares.  
"Dad! I can say dad, right?"  
"Of course you can."  
"You're not gonna be gone when I wake up tomorrow, are you?"  
"No, I'll be here. Or at least around for dinner. You and I have quite a lot to talk about, time to catch up on."

"Is it true that your horse breaths fire?"  
"Oh, no, it's not. Not like that. He's large and wild, a great stallion. But still a normal horse."  
"Does this mean I'm gonna become a war god too when I grow up?"  
"Only if you want, lad. Only if you want."  
"I'm not sure yet." Kalian bit his lip.

o¨*¨*¨o

At that time Achilles returned from his mission and Ares and he talked quite a while about where the Anatolians were hiding and what they were up to. About Ares' Anatolian counterpart Taniroth and about numbers of armed men, horses and weapon. I had understood very little, the business of war had never been my business. Meanwhile Kalian had turned to me and told with the same earnest voice as his father:  
"He's cool! My dad, that is. I've missed him, mum! Not doing that anymore. Do you think I can become a war god too? And get a horse on my own?"  
"Oh darling - sure you can get a horse," was the only thing I could think of saying and instead I took him in my arms and hugged him hard. Kalian in turn yawned and was almost falling asleep in my arms.

After Ares had finished his business with Achilles we put Kalian to bed in the little room, it felt odd in the middle of all this strangeness to do something so normal. Then Ares had closed the door to his room.  
"Didi," he began. "I'm sorry."  
"For what?"  
"For not being honest with you."  
"It's okay. I mean it, it really is." I added when I saw doubt in his beautiful eyes. "I mean, what should you have said? 'Hi, I'm Ares, the Greek war god and I've come to see how to best invade your village'! You bet I'd run like a rabbit then."

Ares smiled and let his hands circle my waist, placing them on the small of my back and pulling me slightly towards him. I felt the texture and the warmth of his hands trough the thin textile of my tunic and once again I thought of how much I had missed his touch.  
"I guess you're right." he said and caressed me gently. "You know most of the times I've had had girls like that. Short flings, instantly forgotten. At those times a false identity used to serve me fine. But you, Didi, you're different. You're special. I felt it almost from the beginning. Not only are you a goddess, you have that something exceptional that took hold on my heart and never let go. I was planning to tell you, but then I guessed it was safest if you didn't know. If you remained 'Ares' secret' even to yourself. After all there was a war about to begin and I couldn't take you with me at the moment. You know I do have a lot of enemies. Enemies who could use the beloved of a war-god as a hostage. I got even more convinced when you became pregnant. My son would be worth gold for those in desire of blackmailing me."

"But the letters, they could've found them, right?"  
"They were addressed to one of my many war identities. And the soldier who picked them up delivered them to his superior who in turn gave them to me, without knowing who I really was. They would be hard to trace even for one who might've known they existed. That was also why I never wrote back to you, to keep you safe, my love."  
"I'm so glad you got Kalian's lock of hair!"  
"Yes, that was a wonderful gift, Didi. He's such an incredible boy! Intelligent, curious and unafraid. He has the abilities for greatness. And not necessarily by following in my bloody footsteps, it'll be up to him, just as I told him back in there. I'm proud of him nevertheless. And of you, you have done a fantastic job raising him!"

"I often wished for you to have been there. To have seen his first step, to have heard his first words."  
"So do I, Didi, so do I." There was so much warmth and soul in his eyes when he said that and again I had a hard time believing that this was the god everybody feared so much. That he was the one who had cut up Xena's leg.

"I tried to find you by scrying. But it didn't work. All I got was disturbances, and the most horrid pictures of war. Terror, killing. Fire and destruction."  
"That's because war is so full of conflicting energies, negative energies, strong emotions of hate, fear, rage and retribution." Ares begun. "Those energies fly around in random patterns and clash as much as men and blades do, sending off strong disturbances in the spiritual dimensions, which affects people's mind in weird ways. Among other things those vibes make it almost impossible to scry if you're not very skilled and experienced, and have trained to scry especially during war time and in war zones. Those energies do other things as well, including distressing people not even participating in the war, giving them angst and nightmares. They also have an effect on animals and even the weather and a lot of other things. It's a complete science to be honest and we can talk about that some other time. But it sure was the reason for you to not being able to find me. And a good reason for using the Army Postal Service as well."

"Ares?"  
"Yes?"  
"What's going to happen now? Will we be staying here. Kalian and I?"

Ares didn't reply with words. Instead he pulled me towards himself and just held me tight for a long time. Once again I sensed his unique fragrance and once again I got tears in my eyes. I suddenly felt so safe, so comforted when I stood there with his strong arms around my back and my head leaning against his bare chest. After a while he let go a bit, and looked me deep in the eyes.  
"You'll stay with me." he said. "Forever. You're the dearest I have. You and Kalian, the apples of my eye! And my love for you is so raw and unrelenting. Didi-mou, I won't let you go. Ever."  
"I love you too - Ares."

"Didi! - will you...?"  
"Ares?"  
"Bear with me; I've never done this before. Didi..."  
"Yes?"  
"Will you - marry me?"

"Oh Ares, yes yes! I... Yes!" As I looked straight into those magnificent but moisty eyes I felt my own blur as well. "Yes I will! I want to marry you so much! But Ares..."  
"Agapi-mou?"  
"You mean - when? Here, now? I'm not used to these things either. I know gods seldom marry. They just bunk up - and then part."  
"But I want to do the real thing. And not here and now. But when all this is over and done, which it soon will be, we'll go to Olympos and have the party of the millennia!"  
"Ares - I'd love that!" I replied and dried a tear. "Me and Kalian going to Olympos - that's just so - wow!"

"How about your enemies?" I went on after a few seconds of silence "they're still out there, right?"  
"Yeah but this war is all but over. This was the Anatolian's last try at saving their faces. Hitting at poor neutral Darangorlad with no defense, trying to kick some more asses instead of retreating with some dignity." He paused for breath. "Then, Didi, the two of you were here. I had to come here and get you out no matter at what cost."  
"Well you don't exactly seem resource less." I smiled and Ares joked back:  
"Just you wait, Didi, just you wait!"  
"Sorry, but I've never really been good at waiting."

Amazing how fast we fell back into old habits, my beloved and I. Almost as if those last six years had never passed. Then Ares got solemn again, lifting his left hand, touching my cheek gently and striking back hair from my face.

"Didi-mou, I also found another treasure, if not as shiny."  
"What?"  
"Taniroth. The Anatolian war god. He's been mocking me for centuries. Always challenging me but never turning up to fight for real. A pain in the ass coward. Now I've sent out a challenge for a duel instead, and this time he cannot back off, because we have the peninsula under control. The only way out is either the isthmus which is crowded with my Greeks or divine routes trough sea or trough air. Whatever he does I would find him and call him for the coward he is and he would have to fight me anyway."

"So you're going to duel him?"  
"Yes."  
"When?"  
"The day after tomorrow. If he picks up the glove, of course."  
"Does he have to?"  
"If he's the slightest concerned with his honour he will."

"Be careful!"  
"You know I will. Come, my love, let's go to bed. I've been waiting for this night for years. I cannot wait much longer." With those words he bent over and kissed me and in the next moment all thoughts about duels, enemies and war were gone from both of our minds. I had also waited for this night forever, and never did I expect it to happen in a place like this. In a headquarter of warriors.


	6. Duel

**Duel**

I woke up in the middle of the night, not really sure about where I was. The dreams had been full of war. Of smoke and fire and terror. And of - Arian. He had come for me, hadn't he? In the middle of all the mayhem he had been there.

And was still?

It was completely dark, and I was hot and sweating with a sticky feeling between my breast and under my neck. I found myself lying spooned up against a warm body. A man with his arms around me and his breath against my neck, making me feel warm - and safe. So very safe. Arian? Ares!

Yes, it all came back to me like a bucket of water had been poured over my head, all the pandemonium of yesterday. And Arian - my wonderful Arian had been Ares the war god. He had appeared out of smoke and fire and saved me and Kalian when I thought all was lost. Then he and I had made love here in this dark room, I still felt my lower lips contract when I recalled the bliss. I couldn't even begin to describe the ecstasy he had brought me into. The joys of feeling him against me - inside of me again, the joy of sharing the pleasure of love making in the very special way you could only do with the one who really mattered to your heart. To once more feel the hot strength of the passion of Arian. Of - I corrected myself - Ares. Ares - God of War! Ares - sovereign of passion. Ares, who has asked me to marry him! My whole life had changed rapidly in just a few hours, and…

…and I needed to go to the bathroom! Careful to not wake my beloved I snaked myself out of his grip and silently I opened the door to the room where we slept. Too late did I realize I was naked as a newborn, but luckily there was no one out in the private office of Ares, and just a tiny slant of gray light was shining in by the threshold of the closed door. My inner clock told me it was the first light of dawn, it would soon be morning, and I wondered what this day would bring.

I did what I had to, the place had plumbing, which was probably why the picky Greeks had chosen it. Then I opened the door next to the loo, and went to check on Kalian. I have shifted my eye-sight to infra, so I could make out his warm contours against the colder bed. He was sleeping soundly, on his belly as usual, and with his arms over his head like he was dreaming of diving into the ocean.  
"My little darling," I whispered. "My treasure. Now you have a daddy too, we both have a real family for the first time in our lives."

Involuntarily I recalled my parents at those words. My father who had always hated me and my mother who had been so week, not daring to resist his madness. If they were still alive, I bet they would faint if they learned where I was and who I was playing house with. They had always despised the Greeks and their 'monstrous gods'. I couldn't even begin to think of what they'd say about Ares.

Not that I really cared!

o¨*¨*¨o

"Be careful, honey!" I almost whispered, striking Ares over his whiskered chin, "I don't want to lose you, not so soon after I found you again."  
"Don't worry, Narinda, Taniroth is a braggart and a fool and the only thing dangerous about him is his bad breath."

I chuckled and he let go of me. He was gorgeous that day of the duel. No armours, that was the agreement, Ares had tied back his below shoulder-length hair in a stright ponytail and he was dressed in a dark-red leather outfit clinging to his magnificent body, showing every part of it. He carried his two heavy swords with the confidence of a man who knew how to handle them better than anyone else and he was so tall and stately that I almost fainted upon seeing him.

I didn't know much about this Taniroth other that he was a war god as well, and a sworn enemy of Ares. And that he was awfully strong and powerful, using his force in a sinister way which made people perhaps even more scared of him than of Ares. I had never seen Taniroth, I knew nothing about how he fought and I had no idea about how Ares would fare against him. I so hoped that my beloved would be able to handle Taniroth and come out in one piece from this. I knew so little about this kind of duels, so naturally my stomach was upset, and my hands had hard to remain still, so I found myself fiddling with first my hair then with the collar rim of my short jacket.

Now I was standing in the shadow of a large oak among some of the Dark Warriors, who surrounded me like a bodyguard, Meliklea among them as well as a tall, lithe man named Dovan, who even had black skin. He came from the hot continent on the other side of the ocean, from Ethiopia, a country even further south than Aegyptos. Meliklea was holding Kalian, who had long ago turned his fright into fascination for the Dark Warriors and wanted to know all and everything about their order of elite soldiers.

Ares walked out to the middle of the large sand plane where he would fight the Anatolian god. My beloved was impressive. Dignified, proud and glorious, with head held high and legs a bit spread. Now he was waiting for his adversary, and so was everyone else. There was the Darangorlad demigod mayor who was acting as a referee and a motley mix of several hundreds of Greeks, Anatolians, Darangorladians and others. I thought I spotted Xena over at the other side but I was not sure, she was hidden by two men in the blue uniform of the Darangorlad guard.

"I bet the asshole's not coming." Sthenephon, one of the Dark Warriors, said.  
"Wanna gamble?" black Dovan asked.  
"Sure, ten talents!"  
"You ain't got ten talents."  
"But you have."

"You lose, Sthen," Anaxadorus said a few seconds later. "Here he comes now."

Yes, there he was indeed, Taniroth of Anatolia. The golden-skinned man was a giant, he towered over Ares with almost a foot and Ares was about seven feet tall. And while Ares' athletic body was striking and handsome this man looked like a freak. He had such bulging muscles and huge neck that he appeared hunchbacked and his arms were - to use an old cliché - as large as Ares' tights, veins ran like ropes across the bare chest and arms. He had wrapped chains across his left shoulder and torso, like some kind of peculiar sash. His head was bald or shaved and he had a grim predator look upon his face, where he came striding forwards, carrying his two swords, which had a jagged, curved and wicked look. I wondered if that design was mostly for show, Ares' weapons were plain, simple and well crafted.

"So here you are little Greek who wanna duel" Taniroth roared. "You don't look that impressive to me in your red jumpsuit, in fact you remind me more of one of those little toddlers back home. The little kids playing with them wooden swords. The little kids who get so scared when the real danger approaches that they wet themselves before running home to mama. So perhaps I'll be kind today, perhaps I'll play it nice with you so that there'll be at least some leftovers to scope up by your followers and send home to mama when I'm done."  
"When you're done blabbing maybe we could start." Ares replied, where he stood with his head slightly tilted, a posture I knew well from Kalian when he was fed up with something.

"You should hail each other politely," the Darangorlad mayor interrupted. He was a slender man in a long, white robe and a golden chain around his neck. The gods obeyed, and bowed in the direction of the opponent. Then the major spoke again.  
"Since the Greek is the challenger Taniroth has picked weapon, he chose the large sword, of the metal Adamantine, which can hurt even immortals. He has also chosen this place and hour. This is 'till dead or 'till someone begs for mercy, and then that one pays the fee the winner asks for and the same amount to the city-state of Darangorlad. Now let the fight begin, and by the law of Darangorlad all bets should be placed by now."

The men started circling each other, looking for openings and weak points. Ares moved with a grace his opponent couldn't match, he was well balanced and secure in a way that seemed to even out Taniroth's assumed greater strength, he seemed to slide across the coarse sand as if it was ice and he a skater.

Taniroth was the one who first found an opening and struck out with his sword. Ares blocked it easily enough. Then they both fenced a bit, tested the other one. Ares became the one to draw first blood, in what initially looked like a defensive parry he lashed out and cut Taniroth across the left arm and an ichorish coppery spray splashed over both men, and down on the ground. The Anatolian took two steps back and then he came at Ares with a brand new fury, having my beloved backing a few paces. But Ares used the other mans force, sidestepped and spun around so he ended up behind Taniroth, and with a well placed foot in the Anatolian's butt Ares made him tumbling forward and almost fall in the sand. Spread laughter was heard.

This move made Taniroth even madder and now he came at Ares with a roar, screaming something at the Greek in his own language. Ares in turn pivoted aside and at the same time lashed out and drew blood once more, this time from Taniroth's chest. Taniroth became the next to draw blood, from Ares' tight. Then the two war gods clashed even more violently and fast-paced, it became hard for me to follow their quick moves, their blades glittering and flashing in the hot sun as they slashed at each other. They moved clockwise around the cordoned off area, then in the other direction, they danced and spun their deadly dance, all the time trying to gauge the other's ability, to outsmart him.

Taniroth might seem the strongest and there was something feral, something raging over his intense moves. The way he kept on pushing would have any man giving up. Anyhow Ares was not relenting. He was quicker and more secure in his moves and full of little more or less dirty tricks he used to keep his opponent off balance and not letting him getting an upper hand because of his physical advantages. While listening to the sparse words from the Dark Warriors I understood that Ares was getting this fight more and more under control, taking it where he want, pushing and pulling Taniroth in the directions he desired. That didn't stop Taniroth from wounding Ares several times though, including almost slicing off his right ear.

Ares in turn did at least the same amount of damage to his opponent. He severed two fingers and then he pierced the Anatolian in the belly so some kind of phlegm was spraying out. That almost had Taniroth on his knees; it must have hurt like Tartarus! Still the Anatolian held his ground, backed off and circled Ares, clutching his hand to help the regeneration of those fingers, before he was striking out again. Although it was a lot of strength in that backhand swing, even my untrained eye noted that he had slowed down considerably and Ares had no problem at all to block him and to follow up with another attack which ended in another piercing wound, this time in the side and almost under the ribs. That must have injured Taniroth's lung, of that was I ready to bet more than those ten talents the Dark warriors had been going about earlier.

The wound made Taniroth roar out his pain, he tilted back his head and thus lost track of his opponent, a dangerous mistake. And Ares was not late to catch it. Once again he slid his sword trough the belly of Taniroth and as it came out on the other side more phlegm mixed with ichor was spurting all over including on the ducking Ares. Screaming even louder the Anatolian backed off, clutching his hand over his belly to stop the guts from falling out. As he healed he backed off even more and now Ares was the one who kept on pushing, since his opponent could hardly hold his sword. But Taniroth was still not relenting, still defending himself with a raging determination. Then suddenly he seemed to have regained some strength and he straightened up and came at Ares again with renewed strength, fencing wildly.

At that moment Ares did an unexpected move and hit the other god over his hand with the broad part of his sword, and Taniroth growled out in pain and dropped his weapon. Ares was quick to kick it out of reach and now Taniroth drew his second sword and attacked the Greek while he kept on growling. The next instant Ares somersaulted over Taniroth and stroke from behind, slicing off a large part of the other man's shoulder. Unbalanced and furious Taniroth turned, I could see that he was bleeding a lot now while my beloved looked almost unhurt, most of his injuries were healed by now. That amazed me, how he could direct power to healing while he used so much of his strength for fighting. Ares grabbed at the arm of Taniroth, using the heavy man's momentum to hurl him to the ground. Then he stepped hard on Taniroth's right hand so he let go of his second sword. Ares still held on to his first.

While Ares kicked away that sword Taniroth rose, but he was not as fast as before. The blood loss and the healing at work had begun to take its toll on the bigger god, obviously he lacked Ares' enduring stamina. Regenerating that shoulder must take a lot of energy, especially since the wound was probably full with gravel. Not to mention the belly wounds. Ares on the other hand looked hardly sweaty.  
"Please don't become too cocky!" I whispered, biting my knuckles. "Please don't to some stupid mistake."

Kalian on the other hand was crying out a wordless cheer next to me, he seemed overjoyed and glancing at my son I could tell he had the time of his life. That made me both happy and confused. On one hand I rejoiced in the fact that the dear boy had adopted so fast to these new facts of reality and that he had come to love and respect his father so dearly. On the other hand I noted Kalian's aura, just over a little bit more than a day and a night it had turned red - really red. Like he was taking after his father for real. The flaring greens and oranges which used to be so prominent were now almost gone. And I wasn't sure I wanted my son to become another war god. He had healing gifts and I had wanted to teach him my trade. I wanted him to save lives, not to take them.

When Taniroth realized he had no weapon left he grabbed at the chain around his chest and pulled it off in a swift move, like he had done this hundreds of times before. Swinging it like a lasso he came at Ares with a roar.  
"So you're into cheating, punk," Ares called out. "Well, I can cheat too!" He ducked under the whining chain and reached up with his left hand, snatching the chain. Taniroth had it wired around his right arm, so he became trapped when Ares started to spin the chain around his head, with the Anatolian at the other end, like he weighted nothing. Then he let go of the chain and it flew with Taniroth in a wide trajectory to the 'aah's and 'ooh's of the audience.

His stance at that moment, legs wide and slightly bent, the upper body somewhat tilted forward, sword in his right hand and the left one stretched into the sky - that's what the sculpturers make statues of. I drew in breath and felt my eyes blur while listening to the deafening cheers around me. Ares! My Ares so magnificent it almost hurt!

Taniroth landed somewhere in street beyond the audience with a large crack of breaking paving bricks. Meanwhile Ares rested a bit, lowering his sword, but still fully alert I could tell, the wind sweeping away loose strands of hair from his handsome face. Then Taniroth came rushing back, picking up strength from some hidden reserve. He was covered in dust and metallic ichor and he was roaring if possibly even louder, swaying his chain.  
"You want another ride?" Ares mocked him.

But this time he didn't grab at the chain, instead he stepped in beneath Taniroth's swings of the irregular weapon and simply pushed his sword in Taniroth's belly and twisted it several times, a cut that would have been more than lethal for a mortal. Then Ares put his foot to Taniroth's chest and pushed him backwards while pulling out the sword, making the Anatolian fall, his guts spilling all over the ground. Taniroth remained down but was still breathing. He tried to crawl off when Ares towered over him, but he was too weak, too slow. And Ares bent over and said something in such a low voice that only Taniroth could hear it before Ares finished his opponent by severing his head.

For the first time in my life I saw a god die, it was a terrible sight. While Taniroth's body went limp his spirit fell up in the air and held corporal form for a few seconds before it shattered like a broken mirror. Those silvery gray shards turned into mercury droplets which formed a whirlpool that gurgled down into nothingness. Just before it disappeared I thought I saw something infrared shining around it. A temporary wormhole to the realms down under. I had heard of those wormholes but never thought I'd see one. Mortals who die, of which I as a medic had seen hundreds and hundreds of, they just go like the mist. Dissolving into nothingness, seeping down under between the atoms of reality.

Around me people were cheering and calling out Ares' name over and over again, turning it into a chanting rhythm. To that beat I ran up to him, the Dark Warriors following in my wake. When I reached my beloved I saw that he was covered in blood, mostly Taniroth's I figured. Almost all of his hair had come out from the ponytail and hung in his face and the leather outfit was mostly ruined, cut into rags and stained with blood and other gory liquids. Not that he seemed to care. And neither did I care that I got all soiled as well when I ran into his arms. Behind me I could hear Kalian telling everyone who might hear:  
"He's my daddy and he's strongest and meanest in the world!"

Ares' scarred servant Cleodice came up to us with an amphora of water and towels, one of them soaked in hot water and liquid soap.  
"For you milord" she hailed him and held out the commodities. As he took them from her Ares thanked her gently. He drank a lot of water, washed his face awkwardly in the rest and then he took Kalian from Meliklea.  
"That was it." he said. "Another jerk who couldn't wait to test himself against me. Taniroth wasn't really the coward I thought, I'll give him that. But overconfidence is both an annoying and dangerous mannerism, and so very common with all those brats who want to duel. And it seems like there's two more popping up for everyone I take out. Like some kind of Hydra."  
"What's a Hydra?" Kalian asked.

"It's a beast of the kind you shouldn't chop the head off, because if you do that, two new will grow out in its place."  
"Wow! Have you killed many of those, daddy?"  
"No, I've never seen any. I think they are extinct. Heracles took one out some six hundred years ago, that might've been one of the last ones. At least that's the last reliable report of a Hydra sighting."  
"How do you kill them then?"  
"Poison may work. Or just blast it with nitro and fire."  
"What's nitro?" the ever curious boy asked.

As we started to leave I saw someone with her back turned to us, talking to an elderly man. I turned to Ares:  
"I'll catch up, there's someone I need to talk to".

o¨*¨*¨o

"Xena!"  
"Narinda! Where've you been? I almost thought the Greeks got you. And where is Kalian?"  
"He's with Ah… I've met Arian!"  
"Your Greek? Kalian's father?"  
"The very one!" It was now or never I thought. "You want to come see him? He went ahead with Kalian and some of the Greeks."

Xena didn't reply immediately.  
"You saw Ares?" she asked.  
"Yes, I did."  
"Terrible, right? The way he just killed Taniroth. Showed no mercy. Sure, the Anatolian god was an asshole, but… He could at least have… Oh, I forgot, it's Ares I'm talking about, the very epitome of evil! He knows nothing of mercy."

I felt my heart sink. It was never apparently.  
"Xena, I got to go."  
"Nari," she laid a hand on me. "Be careful!"

Then she seemed to see me for real the first time.  
"Narinda, you're all stained with - divine ichor! What happened?"  
"Accident."  
"Oh, you were there where Taniroth fell?"

I nodded silently wishing I had remembered to remove the stains from my clothes.  
"Xena I'll see you around. But I guess we're going to have to part soon. I'm going with Arian."  
"Why of course you shall. Yet before that, we have to make it a proper good bye."

We hugged hard and then I ran to catch up with Ares and the rest. I knew I had to tell Xena the truth about my beloved, but how?


	7. The twilight of war

**The twilight of war**

"What did you really say to Taniroth? Before you killed him?" I asked. We had just finished lunch and Kalian had run off to pester some of the soldiers with his millions of questions. Ares and I sat by the corner of a big table, he was leaning against the wall, apparently satisfied with the large meal. I was going to learn that he ate as much as three men, and I understood where Kalian's large appetite was coming from.

"I told him that I was not going to humiliate him by asking him if he wanted to beg for mercy."  
"Do they do that often?"  
"It happens. Some act so brave and stubborn, but when facing death they often back off."  
"Do you - show mercy then?"  
"Sometimes. When I know that I have made a point with my fighting and they won't come after me later, seeking some stupid kind of revenge. As if they thought they could beat me a second time when they failed the first! Most of the times those duels are unnecessary though. I had to challenge Taniroth, because otherwise I would never have his scornful nagging off my back. But more often it's them who call out to me, to see if they can defeat me."

I wondered if that was what had happened to Xena. Had she dueled with Ares and called for mercy? And now she was ashamed of it? Ares seemed to be reading my mind again:  
"Did you see your friend?"  
"Yes. Yes, after the duel she and I had a chat. She works at the hospital here, just as I. We're both living in the personnel's block of flats, where you and I went yesterday to get mine and Kalian's stuff. Before we leave I got to go and give her a real farewell. I guess I need to sell my house in Salenda too, if we are going to Greece."  
"It's a pretty place. We could keep it. As a place for rest and mindfulness." Ares suggested, and it made me smile, I could think of nothing better. It was there we had met. It was there I had birthed Kalian. The place held so many positive memoires I could hardly consider parting from it.

He leaned over me and pulled back a strand of hair from my face. It was weird and wonderful how Ares could be so fierce and brutal in a fight and then so tender when he touched me. He rested with thumb and forefinger against my lips and I kissed them lightly. In reply he laid his arm around me and I leaned against him, felt his warmth trough the linen tunic. Heard his heart beat, strong and steady.  
"The war will be but over now. There will be a declaration of peace. We might sign it here. On neutral ground."

"You'll sign it?" It sounded almost funny in my ears.  
"No, the representative of the Greek empress will. As well as a representative of the Anatolian king. I will only witness it. Together with some Anatolian god."

"What if they attack you for what you did to Taniroth then?" I asked.  
"Then they are even more stupid than I thought." Ares huffed.

¨*o¨o*¨

As Cleodice walked into the room to start removing the leftover from our meal I caught her eyes:  
"Dearest, what happened to your face?" The young girl shrugged.  
"Knife."  
"Troubles you?"  
"Nah... not really. Well, when there's bad weather coming in, it sometimes pains. But I'm getting used to it. Besides the guy who did it is down under now. I sent him across the Styx myself."  
"I can fix it if you like."

Cleodice's face lit up.  
"Really?"  
"Really!"  
"I know I shouldn't be vain, I'm a warrior, but you know..."  
"I do know. Speaking for myself I know how vanity gets the better of us when we look into the mirror. Now come over here!"  
"Now?"  
"Of course, why wait?"

The Amazon put aside her things and complied and I laid my right hand across her marred cheek, putting my left hand upon her shoulder.  
"Now this will hurt a bit, but probably not as much as when you got the scar." Then I took a few minutes to read the texture of her undamaged skin and after that I melted down the scar tissue and copied the cells of the healthy part over it, smoothing and smoothing until all visible scar tissue was gone. While doing so I saw how Cleodice wrinkled her brow and blinked away the tears in her eyes, clamping her cheeks against the outcry of obvious pain.  
"Amazon or not, you don't have to be so brave, dear" I told her and then she whimpered a bit.

As I removed my hand I picked up a brass lid for a saucepan, dried it off a bit and then turned it to the Amazon as a mirror.  
"See - you're new, dear! Now, I'll give you some ointment to make it even better. It'll itch a bit the first days; try not to scratch because the skin is tender. Use only water for cleaning and keep your face out of the sun as much as possible the first weeks. A scarf or a cover-all helmet ought to do it.  
"Thank you great goddess!" Cleodice said with a faint blush and it felt so unusual to hear. No one ever had called me that. I realized then I had gained a new position here among the Greeks. Not only was I the beloved of their war god, I was also a healing goddess, someone to turn to with pains and injuries. It was gaining me respect in a way I had never expected earlier. So different from just being regarded as a mortal healer.

But then Cleodice was far from the first Greek I had helped, as the word about my abilities had spread there had been warriors coming to me with all kinds of predicaments, from colds to old war injuries. A kitchen girl had burned her hand and a Dark Warrior had got a snake bite. One soldier had trouble with his shoulder after an old arrow wound, another one had a constant ringing in her ear after a concussion and a third one walked with a limp because of broken leg which had healed in a faulty way. I had even generated an eye, that had taken me two hours, and then Ares had to tell me to stop or I'd wear myself out. That had always been my main weakness, I had hard to judge my abilities and I always wanted to give too much, to help too many.

That was something I had to talk to Asklepios about when I met him, which I had no doubt I'd do sooner or later now when I know he was Ares' nephew. When do you stop thinking about others and start thinking about yourself, I would ask him.

¨*o¨o*¨

"Ares?" I asked. "You know the friend I talked about. My colleague from the hospital. "  
"Yes?" He looked up from the crossbow he was mending.  
"You've met her."  
"When? In Salenda?"

"Yes, briefly. But also before that event. About thirty years ago she was a mercenary army surgeon with the Thracians during the Endergoran war."  
"So far away!"  
"Yeah. The two of you fought. And you wounded her in the tight."

"Very possible if she was with the Thracians and I was with the Greeks. I fought a lot of people in that war as well as in all the others. And some were spared. Like your friend. Perhaps I saw no reason for killing a medic."

"Yeah, and she's still having nightmares about you, that you're coming for her to finish what you started." Then I remembered what she had told me four years ago: "She dreamt that you were outside my house the night Kalian was born."  
"She might be psychic then, because I was there in spirit."  
"Yeah I did feel you. But…"  
"But what?"  
"Can you… I want… I want to deliver her from those dreams. I guess the only way for that to happen is for you to… If the two of you can meet."

Ares looked a bit uncomfortable.  
"And what should I say to her exactly? That I'm sorry about her leg?"  
"I removed her scars long ago, but I could do nothing about those in her soul. Or her nightmares."  
"That's what happens in war. She knew it as well as everyone else."  
"Ares, she's my friend. I want to help her nevertheless. She's such a proud woman and she has been a wonderful colleague and companion. Please!"

Putting down the crossbow my beloved took my hand, caressing it lightly:  
"All right. It might not work, but I'll give it a try." He smiled then. "On one condition."  
"What, honey?"  
"I want another of those wonderful pressure points massages you give."  
"Deal!"  
"Hope I don't make it worse for her though. That's always a risk you know."  
"I guess we have to take it then."

¨*o¨o*¨

The same day as the peace treaty was to be signed I went over to Xena's to say my farewells. I had a lump in my troth while doing that. We had shared so much over the years and lived almost as sisters, especially during those last years here in Darangorlad. Yet now it was time to turn that page in life, and travel with my dear son and the love of my life to the other side of the Aegean. And perhaps not ever see Xena again. Because even if we were keeping my house in Salenda, Xena was not going there anymore, she was staying here, she told. She knew she was needed and wanted here. She knew that what she did here was important. On top of that she liked this little seaside town with its rustic architecture, its narrow alleys and tacky tourist traps.

She was outside her ground floor apartment, sitting at the terrace in the shade of the large cedar tree with a read and an amphora of lemonade and she looked up when I came, smiling a sad smile. She knew it too.  
"So this is it then, Narinda. This is good bye."

I went up to her and hugged her.  
"You sure have been the best friend anyone could ever have had, Xena. I'm going to miss you so incredibly much!"

Xena hugged back, hard and strong. And I could hear how she was choking upon tears when she replied:  
"Oh, Nari! What am I going to do without you? No I have no one to fight with. Or discuss men with."  
"Talking 'bout men, I do want you to meet Arian before we go."  
"I can understand that. He's after all… He's the light in your eyes. I hope you'll become happy together."

"He's down by the playground with Kalian; he wanted to ride the tree swing."  
"Yes, Kalian, I have to say goodbye to that little darling too." Xena put down her book and rose. It hit me how old she suddenly looked. Her hair was almost all white now and she looked tired and sad. But then she smiled and her eyes twinkled - and in that smile I saw her strength again, and I knew that she would cope, because she was doing the right thing. Her thing. And for that she held my deepest respect.

We started to walk the graveled pathway down the slope where last year's leaves were still covering the ground and the cracked stones never got replaced and then we went around the corner to the playground. Down there I saw Ares and Kalian; they had abandoned the swing for a found ball they were goofing around with. There were no other children around. This place used to be crowded with little ones, but since the two invading armies had reached the town most parents were keeping their offspring indoors.

Ares was in 'Arian mood' now and it hit me how different his body language looked when he was incognito. More care-free and playful, almost like he was still an adolescent. I heard the wonderful sound of their laughter and when Kalian saw us he came running up to us:

"Mother, Xena! Hi, Xena are you coming with us to Greece?"  
"Unfortunately not, dear" she went down to hug Kalian. "I'm staying here."  
"But I want you to. Dad can show you his…"

Ares came up and interrupted with a polite greeting.  
"You're Xena, right. Narinda's dear friend."  
"That's correct. And you must be Arian."

I swallowed. This was it. It was a wound that needed to be cauterized. It would hurt like a nightmare, but it was necessary. I laid my arms around Kalian and looked at Xena and Ares.  
"Yes, that's a travelers' name I use."  
"A traveler's name?"  
"Yes, you need them sometimes when you do things you don't want to tell the whole world you are doing."

Xena misunderstood of course:  
"That's the name you use when you start a family or what?" she said sternly. "What's wrong with your own name?"  
"What does she mean?" Kalian asked.  
"I'll tell you later," I mumbled.  
"There's nothing wrong with it. Save for when you are at war and want to go incognito to some places. Didi and Kalian know what name I use normally though. The name my mother and father gave me once."  
"And that is?"

"Ares."  
"You've got to be kidding!"  
"I'm not."  
"Are you telling me that they named you after that war god? Then I beg your pardon, I understand that you need travelers names sometimes. No offence but…"  
"Xena, I am that war god."

Now my friend became muted. She turned first red then all pale in her face as several emotions passed in her greenish blue eyes. She took a step back and first I feared that she would turn around and run. Then she straightened up and looked Ares firmly in his eyes. She looked magnificent then.  
"I knew it! I knew that you would show up one day, old destroyer. And now you're not taking my life from me but my best friend. I wish…" she went quiet and turned to me:  
"Narinda, are you serious about this?"  
"Never been more serious in my entire life."

"Well then, as they say up North, when you face the trolls they burst. Now, Ares, I'm not scared of you anymore. But get out of my dreams and take care of that girl. She deserves better than another pig walking out on her. And so does Kalian."  
"I promise, Xena. At least the latter. Dreams I can do nothing about, it's not in my power. There's a guy named Morpheus who might help you though."

At his wry humour even Xena had to lay down her arms. She laughed her familiar husky laugh, then she turned stern and said:  
"War has come to twilight, and I'll soon be dealing with more 'normal' patients here. But that doesn't mean they're going to stop coming. I know I'm needed here, so I'm staying. I'll miss you Nari darling. And my dearest Kalian, who became almost like another son of mine. But not you, Ares. Bringer of havoc and terror. Blood-luster! Wherever you go there's death and horror. Carnage and devastation performed in your name. And too much work for a medic to do. So off to Greece with you and stay there!"

¨*o¨o*¨

"I'm sorry, honey," I told Ares when we were returning to the Greek headquarter. "I didn't know she would be that hostile. She usually isn't."  
"Don't be. I'm used to hostilities. It comes with the work description. I hardly hear them anymore. They pour off like water on a goose."

At that time I felt so unhappy for him. He had to hear all those things from people who didn't know him. Who only knew a rumour. A rumour of a blood thirsty war god. A rumour they never bothered to look behind. All right Ares had killed and maimed more people than I could even begin to imagine. Mortals as well as gods and whatever other beings who might've come in his way. On the other hand I bet that any mister nice guy would gladly take a crossbow and shoot an arrow in the chest of somebody who threatened someone or something they held dearly. And Ares was simply so much better at killing than any random 'mister nice guy', so he had to do the job for them. Some people stitched wounds, some people cooked meals, and some people built houses. And some people kept the bad guys at bay. Ares was one of those.

And the saddest thing of all was that those mister nice guys always came to him and asked him to save them when danger was approaching. To chase away and kill the bad guys for them while they hid in shelters. Then he gladly came. He and his dark warriors. They did their job, cleaned the area, returned safety and stability to the region. But when the war was over those who had prayed so hard to him didn't want to acknowledge him anymore. They suddenly became pacifists and believed war and war gods were useless. It was so unfair!

I squeezed his hand a bit harder.

"I'm sorry anyway. You must not think too badly of Xena, she's - she is really nice."  
"At least to those who doesn't cut up her leg I take it." Ares replied sarcastically.  
"But - Ares" I said, stopping and grabbing his arms, looking deep in those dark eyes, making him stop and facing me. "She's not the only one."  
"What do you mean?"

I glanced at Kalian who was sitting on Ares' right arm. He was attentive of course, and I knew I had a lot of explanations to give him as well. But first my beloved. Reluctantly I told him. I told him all the stories people used to tell about him. About the killings and the terror performed in his name, about his rumored lust for blood and death, about his reckless slaughter and extensive destruction. Things I knew were way exaggerated but yet were told over and over again, and not only by the enemies of the Greeks. And thus taking root in the society turning the name of Ares into something you feared and despised.  
"I'm sorry," I finished. Not caring that I was repeating myself. "But that's what people say about you." I blinked away the tears in my eyes trying to read his face, sense his thoughts. Was he angered? Sad?

Instead Ares barely shrugged.  
"Don't you think I've heard these things already? Over and over again. I know they're overstatements. And so do you. But it's no big deal really. In fact I want it that way."  
"You want… people to believe these things about you? But, Ares, why?"  
"Because of fear. Fear is a good weapon. It can be used against almost anyone and at a low cost. If people believe me a beast they tend to stay away from me. And thus less trouble."

"How can you want…?"  
"Didi-mou, the people who matter to me know it's war propaganda. The rest I don't really care about. I talked to Xena because you asked me to. Otherwise I would never have bothered. "


	8. A call out in the night

**A call out in the night**

The same evening as my failed try at reconciling Ares with Xena the peace treaty between The Hellas Commonwealth and the Kingdom of Anatolia was signed, in a sacred place not far from the city of Darangorlad. The Litvinia hill held a temple to The Eternal Zeus, a god held in revere by both Greeks and Anatolians, and in consequence a place where both groups could meet without anyone feeling lesser or intimated by the other party. The event - which was more like a ceremony than anything else - took place in the grand hall of the temple, beneath the inscrutable face of a marble statue of the great god. The large hall lay in dusk in spite of the many burning lanterns and the air was reeking with incense and lack of oxygen.

It was amazing how those magnificent temple halls seemed to look more or less the same wherever you came. From Karkheidon to Kolchis to Inthorergon to Darangorlad. Same rows of pillars, gilded ornaments, marble statues and uncomfortable seats. Same art more or less focused upon celebrating the god in question and same kind of altar cluttered with gifts and fading flowers. And the same almost intimating statue of the god observing it all. This crowded place was no exception, far from it, even though it was a bit more run down than the temple halls I had seen in the in the Hellenic cities.

That was another reason for me to not wanting to become a goddess. I sure didn't want any temple like that to be raised in my name. I didn't want to become a stern-faced statue which looked down upon mortals who bought me commodities in return for a desire to be cured from one illness or another. Just the thought made me cringe; I couldn't imagine anything more embarrassing.

The procedure was as well overseen by two present gods, the Greek's Ares and the Anatolian goddess of justice - Chizay. Two generals, one from each side represented their monarchs and signed the treaty in sacred ink and in four copies. One copy was to be kept by the Greeks and one by the Anatolians and then the third was to be stored in the temple in a special, airtight container which became placed in a crypt which held innumerable documents of the same kind. Very few - if any - of the other documents were as important as this treaty which mattered for thousands and thousands. Most of them were minor agreements to settle disputes or confirm contracts between two or a few more people. A way to somewhat try to establish that justice was witnessed and warded over by the gods.

Then the regular procedure was to burn the fourth treaty, to symbolize that it was sent to Zeus himself. But since one of the divine overseers was a son of Zeus, the treaty was given to him. At this moment there were some protests raised among the Anatolians but they were silenced by Chizay.  
"We came here to give up our claims" she said. "They were too costly to us. We lost this war and we need to accept this defeat in an honorable way or we will lose our faces as well."

The murmur died down, Chizay's words may have sounded reasonable and just, but a few of us saw the looks she was giving Ares at the same time. Her obsidian eyes were filled to the brim with venom; it was as if she wanted to attack Ares right there on spot, to avenge the humiliation dealt to her people. But she was wiser than that; she refrained from striking out because she knew it would be futile - at best. Ares had killed her uncle Taniroth in a battle that people would be talking about for generations. Taniroth had been one of the most brutal and most skilled fighters of the Anatolian gods and he had been put down by the Greek god in a way that showed without doubt who was the strongest and the best at the art of war. Ares' victory had been no lucky shot, far from it.

Still the hostility remained. I regarded Chizay where I stood next to Ares with my arm under his. To her I was nothing, just a consort of Ares, so she paid me no attention whatsoever when I looked her over. She was dark-skinned but not as black as an Ethiopian and she was tall and lithe with flying raven black hair over a face that would have been beautiful - on a man. But I found it too chiseled for a woman and she did nothing to dampen that with make-up. Instead she had concentrated all her vain upon a large hair-decoration which might have looked tacky on a sweeter woman and a crimson coloured dress, cut so that it showed quite a lot of her lithe body. And with her stance she tried to radiate off as much power and strength as possible.

Now she was looking at Ares as if she expected him to say anything, but he just bowed ever so slightly as he put the wooden cylinder with the treaty in a pocket inside his ox-blood coloured leather cloak, a polite smile emitting from his full lips. The tense feeling remained in the large hall, but some people were starting to rise and take leave. And then more followed their example, the hall become filled with the sound of people moving about and talking. I cast a glance at some of the dark warriors who stood guard and they too showed that it was time to go, although we were to be the last to leave, the dark warriors Achilles, Dovan, Oranthes and Astymache taking up the rear as an escort of honor.

As the hall was emptying of people Ares looked up at the Zeus statue and made a bow of honor towards his father. Once more I laid my eyes upon the representation of the powerful god. There was not much in the admirable features of Zeus that reminded me of the son I loved; still there was a sense of strength and endurability in him which I had seen in Ares too. Now, when I was certain that it would be just a matter of time before I was eye to eye with the great god, I really understood that I would have to overcome the awe I felt while regarding Zeus. He was to become my father in law, how strange that sounded, and I had to start considering him as a normal person and not some kind of super being.

The next moment my love took my arm again, and leant over me:  
"So what do you think?"  
"About the ceremony? A bit pompous to be true."  
"Aye, but it has to be like that. For the solemn people to take it serious. I guess us laid-back day to day ones could as well have done it in the tavern down by the road and get a good meal together. "

"You're always thinking about food!" I mocked him with twinkles in my eyes and he smiled back:  
"You might think it's funny, but there's a reason behind that argument as well. People who drink and eat together find it easier to get along. Knots of tension loosen up and the mood gets better, perhaps even merry. Maybe even the lady Chizay could relax a bit with a cup of wine in her hand."  
"So you saw it too, her hostility towards us?"  
"I sure did, I haven't been in this business for centuries for nothing. I recognize the problems and sometimes even the solutions too. "  
"So what's the solution to Chizay?"  
"I don't know - yet. I'll have to ponder that. If it is necessary to do so, after all she will be returning to her pantheon soon - and we'll be heading towards mainland Greece."

In the entrance to the hall we passed by Chizay who was talking to some warriors of her escort. Lean, swarthy men with leopard hides covering parts of their chainmail and those toppy helmets which were so typically Anatolian. And there was something with the looks Chizay was giving the two of us that were so utterly hostile that it sent shivers down my spine and it took all my will power to not give away any discomfort.

Ares with his sensitive mind noted how I felt though. When we had passed through the large doors and out in the slanted evening sun my love let go of my elbow and placed his arm around my shoulders instead, squeezing them lightly.  
"Don't let Chizay upset you, Didi-mou! This was probably the last you saw of her in a long long time anyway."

Little did we know how wrong Ares would be on that account.

¨*o¨o*¨

The dear Kalian came rushing up to us as we returned to the headquarter. He had been pouting because we didn't take him with us, but now it seemed forgotten. Sthenephon had been showing him some daggers and even taught Kalian a bit about how to use them.  
"Sthen threw them at dummies and I got to try too and I even hit one. And it was really far. Sthen says I can become really good with knives if I practice hard enough."  
"That's the spirit, lad!" Ares replied. "You want to show me?"  
"Yeah!" Kalian began to jump up and down and grabbed our hands so we had to follow him downstairs to the rooms where some of the Greek warriors were still practicing all kinds of martial art.

I became quite fascinated by some warriors who fought with just their bare hands and were kicking and lashing out, not with the aim to hit hard but rather to touch certain body parts, just to show that they could hit. A kind of mock fight to practice moves, speed and reflexes. Others were throwing their opponents to the floor, and the latter ones were rolling away, obviously unhurt and were standing up again in a blink of an eye. Ares saw my interest and dropped some Asian names I forgot in an instant.

The knifes on the other hand were less exotic, Ares handed some of the smaller, lighter ones to Kalian and then they walked over to the dummies and agreed upon a position to aim from. There they practiced for a while and I sat down on a bean sack by the wall and watched them interact. Ares sure was a good teacher, patient and accurate and he took enough time to explain the techniques to Kalian without making it boring or tedious. He showed our son how to hold the knife and how to move the hand and the arm to make a throw which went both far, hard and precise. Thus Kalian came to hit the dummy several times, and they both beamed when he did so.

"Show me what you can do, dad!" Kalian asked after a while. "Sthen told me you can do amazing stuff!"  
"Well then go sit over by your mother and I'll show off a bit!" Ares ruffled Kalians hair and then our son came running up to me and threw himself in my arms and I lifted him up in my lap, hugging him hard, nuzzling my cheek in his dark hair. Meanwhile Ares went over and picked up a handful quite a bit larger knifes and daggers from one of the wooden boxes next to the entrance door and then he backed off almost to the wall opposite of the dummies, some twelve steps away. He gave us a salute and then he began to show all kind of stunts. Regular throws first and then tossing the knife under his knee or over his shoulder, from behind and between his legs, repeating with his left hand and in the end he tied off his scarf and blindfolded himself with it instead, spun around a bit and did it all over again.

At the end Kalian and I were applauding him joyously and as he removed his blindfold and bowed gracefully to us there were three more people in the room applauding. I recognized Sthenephon plus two of the Greeks who had been fighting weaponless combat in the adjacent room. Those were a tall, stocky man with broken nose over a huge chin and a striking woman who would have been a miracle of beauty hadn't several scars marred her face. None as bad as the one Cleodice had worn but nevertheless tainting her features. She had worn her hair tied up with leather ribbons and now she was removing them, letting dark curl fall down across shoulders shining with sweat.  
"Awalda!" Ares called to her. "Come here!"

"You wanna do your 'performance'?" Awalda grinned.  
"I sure will! Kalian and Didi haven't seen it!"  
"Whatcha gonna do, dad?" Kalian asked with excitement in his voice.  
"You'll see, Little Hero!" Ares replied and then Awalda went over to the dummies and moved one of them over, posing herself against the wall instead with her arms outstretched. At the same time Ares went and removed the knives from the dummy and I so wondered what was going to happen.

"Good for you, Awalda, we have a medic in the room" Sthenephon called out. "And you Ares as well!"  
"Aw, shut up. Sthen!" Awalda replied. "If it wasn't Ares I wouldn't be volunteering this and you know it."  
"You guys are crazy, do you know it?" the broken-nosed said.  
"Yeah, we haven't been able to avoid hearing you saying so a thousands of times before, Gylas." Ares replied.

He posed himself by the far end of the room again and then he was throwing his knifes once more, deliberately missing Awalda with just fractions of thumbs. And the gracious warrior woman hardly looked scared; she was smiling all the time. Not even when she split her hands and Ares placed a knife between each of her ten fingers did she flinch a second. So assured of Ares' accuracy was she. The last knife buried itself right between her legs in an almost obscene way. And in the end Ares blindfolded himself again and repeated some of the stunts. Needless to say neither Kalian nor I had ever seen anything like it.

Meanwhile even more people had gathered in the room, lined up by the wall or sat down on the floor. There were the Dark Warriors Achilles, Meliklea, Agarak, Dovan, Xantippa, Syrios, Astymache and Penelope together with a handful more fighters I had yet to learn the name of. It amazed me that Ares commanded thousands - and yet he seemed to know the name of every single one in his armed forces - down to the teenage youths who tended the horses and the veteran Amazon who could pick an apple from a tree by shooting an arrow from twenty steps away.

To more ringing applauses both Ares and Awalda bowed gracefully and then Ares called it a night.  
"I'll need some supper now before it gets too late, so good evening and thank you for your ever so kind services, Awalda."  
"My pleasure, great Ares" The dark-haired girl smiled back. Then Ares was assaulted by Kalian who was asking if he could teach him all those stunts.  
"In time I will, Little Hero" Ares smiled and lifted up Kalian on his shoulders.  
"Tomorrow?" Kalian persisted.  
"Perhaps we can practice some more tomorrow, yes."  
"And those kicks and rolls the others were doing too!" Ares smiled and met my looks when he told Kalian that he could not have everything at a time, and that first and foremost it was supper time now.

¨*o¨o*¨

In my dream I was walking a long beach which might have been the one in Salenda, but at the same time it was far too long and wide and the ocean was wilder, with heavy breakers crashing far up on the sand. When the waves were retreating back into the sea again they made the sand muddy and almost pulling my ankles away under me. The skies were lead gray and fast moving and there were birds calling out above. They sounded like gulls but were black as crows, which made perfectly sense, just as absurd things tend to do when you are dreaming.

I was alone at the beach; there was no one around me to be seen. No Kalian, no Ares, not a single soul around. There was just me, the wild sea and those black seagulls above.

No, not really, there was someone walking ahead of me, far away, almost where the dunes of ash-gray sand met the overcast sky. Someone with raven black hair flying like a cloak behind her. In an instant I knew I was trying to catch up with her, so I sped up my steps, but the wet sand made it even harder to sprint. And the woman I had just caught sight of was getting further away instead. For some reason I kept on walking like a mortal, not taking in the air as any goddess in my situation would have done. Meanwhile the woman ahead of me was getting further and further away.

"Wait" I called out, but my voice was ripped away by the wind and became yet another sea gull call.  
"Wait, please!" I tried even louder.

Then the woman turned, and it was as if I suddenly could see her close up. Thus I recognized Xena. She reached out and called for me, fear burning in her green eyes.  
"Help me, Narinda, Help me!" Her scream became louder, assaulting my ears, and she reached for me with desperate hands "Help me, Narinda, You must help me, please! They're taking me away!"  
"Who? Who are taking you?"  
"Help me, Narinda!"

Then I was wide awake, my body stiff with fear as the nightmare still held me in its razor-sharp talons.

"Ares!" I heard myself call out with fear contracting my throat. "Ares wake up!"  
"Didi?" My beloved woke up in an instance and sat up in bed, soft flames of emerald divine light burning from his index and middle finger.  
"Ares, they have her. They have Xena!" I said and met the eyes of my beloved in the comfort of the familiar sheen.  
"Who?"

"I don't know." But in an instant I understood. "Chizay. Ares, Chizay has her!"


	9. Never abandon a friend

**Never abandon a friend**

Ares was never the man of pointless questions. As soon as I had told him my dream he brought out a brass bowl and filled it with water he conjured up. Then he put it between us in the bed so we could use the water as a scrying device and see what had happened. Xena had not been kidnapped against her will as I had first thought. There had been no abduction of a kicking and screaming friend. Instead she had been approached by a tall, bearded elderly man in a long dark-blue coat and toppy hat who had offered her a large sack of money for her services.  
"You'll have to come with me to Rhembosia because the patient is there and cannot be moved" the tall stranger said, his voice oddly pitched for a man and with that guttural, edgy lilt I had come to connect with the Anatolians. "And we'll be travelling immediately, time is dire."

"I'll have to pack a few things." Xena replied.  
"Make it fast. And remember we can get you almost anything you need in Rhembosia, so don't consider taking too much with you."

Xena had complied, she had grabbed her medical purse and then filled a second bag with an extra set of clothing and some other necessities before she had exited her apartment and locked the door. As usually she had put the key on its chain in the inner folder of the medic purse and then she had left together with the foreign man in an old but well kept stagecoach drawn by four fast horses. It appeared decent enough but Ares had wrinkled his brows.  
"Smoke and mirrors" he said.  
"What?"  
"This is not what it seems. And your dream showed that clearly enough. Your friend is being led into a trap."  
"But why? Xena's not... Is it... because of - us?" I recalled Chizay's plotting in the temple of Eternal Zeus as we had left after the signing of the peace treaty.

"Might be." Ares was biting his lower lip, something he tended to do when he thought hard on something. "Might as well be a strike against Darangorlad, remove the only medic left from the town and it'll be vulnerable and at the Anatolian's mercy in the future."  
"Xena is far from the only medic in town" I protested.  
"But she is the only good one, now when you're leaving, Didi. At the moment she's on her way to Rhembosia instead. Into the very heart of Anatolia. Whatever she's still going there voluntarily, so it's too early for us to intervene. Besides the ride to Rhembosia takes about fifteen hours so we won't lear anything new before midmorning the least. We better finish this night's sleep and then we'll sit down and come up with a plan of action tomorrow."

"Ares, I don't think I can sleep anymore."  
"You will, just let me hold you."  
"Yes," I whispered and Ares put away the sighting bowl and we turned out our lights. I cuddled up against his firm torso and he folded his large, bulging arms around me and put his left leg on top of mine. Lying there snuggled up close to him, hearing his heartbeat, the well known warmth and flagrances lulled me to sleep in spite of my earlier doubts. A dreamless and restful sleep even.

¨*o¨o*¨

After breakfast the next morning I prepared the sighting bowl to see how Xena was faring. My friend had reached Rhembosia and been installed in a suite-like apartment which overlooked the great river flowing though the city. In the middle of the river was a droplet shaped island of beautiful gardens and pastel coloured palaces. Part of it could be viewed from the balcony Xena was entering as I watched her. Ares had told me that the island was the place where the Anatolian gods lived.

But I didn't care about the pantheon, save for a quick glance at the beauty of the island. Instead I wanted to see how Xena was faring, and she was apparently still doing fine. She was standing leant against the balustrade dressed in a knee-long, green dress she used on special occasions and she was looking down in the city below, sun shining on her graying hair. She looked excited and thrilled, as if she was enjoying this sudden adventure. For that I couldn't blame her. Had I got the same offer only a week ago I had probably taken it. Rhembosia seemed like an exciting place with its high buildings and busy streets. Not entirely unlike Inthorergon which had attracted me for the same reasons a bit less than twenty years ago.

Now Xena was in a similar situation to the one I had been in back then. Alone and with no one or anything that bound her to a special place. And with that peculiar crave for something to happen in life. She was probably toying with the desire of staying in this place now, when I was leaving Darangorlad for Greece together with my son to follow a man she thought little of. I was even convinced that she was fighting feelings that I had betrayed her when I chose Ares, her old enemy. At the same time she did know love, she had loved, married and had had children back when she was in her twenties and she ought to know what it meant to follow her heart. Yes, Xena definitely knew love; she was a passionate woman, even if she had learned to keep her heart well in check. That she didn't approve of Ares and was unwilling to bless our relation was only natural. She had feared and hated him for so many years that it would be hard to dispatch those feelings all of a sudden. And for the same reasons she still didn't trust him. If she ever would.

I had been lost in revere for a few moments and now my focus returned to the sighting pool as Xena seemed to shift her attention. Yes, there was someone at the door and my friend left her outlook and went into the room again, pulling a knitted shawl over her bare shoulders against the sudden chill inside the stone mansion. She blinked a bit at the dark too, mortals were generally slow with shifting their eye sight between bright and dark light. Then she went to answer the door. And the lady entering almost had the heart almost stopping in my chest. Chizay. At the same time I should have known...

"Welcome to Rhembosia I offer you" the dark-haired goddess said. She was a bit more modestly dressed today, in a long, turquoise gown fastened around her hips with a golden belt adorned with lapis-lazuli gems and a thin veil of silver threads covering her raven-dark hair. She held a fan over her chest and she looked at Xena with interest in her black eyes. Interest and also something judging. Like she was regarding cattle to be bought rather than a human being. My heart revolted at that haughty expression, I would never look at a fellow human that way, being she mortal or immortal.

I could hear Ares and Kalian talk behind me, but for once I wasn't paying them attention.  
"Have you slept well? And had a bit of a breakfast?" Chizay asked Xena and my friend confirmed with a soft yes. "Then I'll bring you to the man who is in need of your help," Chizay went on.  
"May I enquire you of something first, great goddess?" Xena asked.  
"Of course you may." Chizay replied and I was almost taken aback at the condescending sound of her voice. Didn't Xena hear? I thought.

Or perhaps she did but chose to disregard it out of distress and fear. After all save for me she didn't have that many experiences with immortals. There had been Ares who wounded her of course, not a pleasant experience. So perhaps she chose to keep a good face towards Chizay. After all Chizay was a full blood goddess, not some mere immortal with meek powers who made their living by helping mortals and running errands for mightier gods. Chizay could probably and would probably turn an annoying mortal into ashes in an instance if she felt like it. On the other hand those Anatolians needed Xena's help; otherwise they would not have gone through the trouble to get her to Rhembosia. So Chizay did better not be so patronizing, I groused.

"Your patient," Xena started "He must be of some major importance, since you yourself, a mighty Anatolian goddess come here to see me. Who is he and how can I possibly be of help when your own medics have obviously been clueless? I am after all but a country doc and a former field medic."  
"We have our reasons for approaching you, Xena of Salenda. Which will be made clear given time. And you will now be taken to the man in need of your help."

"Still I ask because I want to be able to prepare myself," Xena insisted as she grabbed her medic purse. "I want to be aware of how to behave towards your patient. Is he perhaps a member of the Anatolian royal family? Because then I fear that what I'm wearing for instance is inadequate. And my..."  
"Do not worry about that, your outfit is of little significance. But more important is littleness of time we have. So let's go now and I will do my best answering your questions along the way."

Xena nodded silently and once more she grabbed her doctor's purse. Then the women took leave. As they exited the suite Chizay cast a glance over her shoulder as the door slammed close, and I got an eerie feeling that she was actually looking right at me. As if she could somehow perceive that I was regarding her trough my sight pool. I cringed slightly and shuddered in spite of the damp warmth of the room.

The next second I felt Ares' hand upon my shoulder and I looked up at him.  
"Didi, I must see the soldiers off now. It's imperative that the major part of the Greek troops start marching out from Darangorlad now, to show that we mean business with this peace. I'll take Kalian with me; you can join us when you're done scrying."

I mumbled something uncommitted and Ares gave me a light kiss on my cheek.  
"See you around then, honey. And we will talk about helping your friend."  
"Ares, who's staying with us?"  
"The major part of the dark warriors and some people from the baggage troops. Achilles will be around, should you be needing something."

My beloved's onyx eyes darted slightly sideways and I followed that motion. And there by the doorframe was Ares' tall and brawny second in command, regarding us with those dark eyes that never seemed to miss a detail, how insignificant it ever might seem. I nodded slightly at the Greek and he returned the gesture. Then Ares patted my shoulder and took Kalian by his hand and left together with Meliklea and Dovan.

I went back to watching Xena and Chizay who were now travelling another four-horse stagecoach across the downtown of Rhembosia, this vehicle bearing the same coat of arms as the one Chizay's guards of honor had on their shields. It felt peculiar; a Greek god would never travel that way. Either he or she flew or they sent a representative to pick someone up to their place. Never would they come and get a mortal like that. This hinted at Xena's importance with the people Chizay was a part of, whatever they were gods or mortals. And I could see nothing which indicated that my friend was in any kind of danger, she seemed to be absolutely too important for the Anatolians for that. On the other hand my dream kept haunting me and I knew that there was something bad lurking in the future for Xena. Something I would have to be there for her to save her from.

But what?

And how could I talk Ares into helping me? Because I was convinced I would need his help, I could never take on Chizay and whoever was behind her myself. I might be immortal but I was but a healer. My business was saving lives not threatening them. Still I could never abandon Xena. Never! Next to Kalian and Ares she was the dearest one in the world to me.

Through the open window came calls from the street below. It was the Greek soldiers grouping themselves to start marching off. It would be a lengthy trip for them back home; still I guessed most of them were filled with joy in their hearts. Joy of seeing their beloved ones again after such a long time. Joy that they were still alive and walking. All of them were walking now, those injured ones had I dealt with during the days Kalian and I had been staying with Ares in the headquarter. Deeds which had rendered me a name and a status similar even to an Olympian, something I was having a hard time not letting go over my head. I was a proud woman, that was true, but I knew that I could never compare myself to the crème de la crème of the Greek gods. I might be the fiancée of their war god but I could never measure myself against the Olympians when it came to divine powers.

Born from mortal parents I didn't even know what had made me immortal. Where I had got my powers from. A mutation? A freak of nature! I had to face the fact, among gods I was no one. Or perhaps... Wasn't that really the mortals who decided these things? They revered the gods and the goddesses who helped them. The rest they cared little about. And remembering the faces of Cleodice, Antilykos, Andros and countless of others I had helped just those few days, I knew that I was held in high regard at least among these Greek warriors.

I heard countless of voices calling out Ares' name three times and in return my beloved replied and he thanked them for their services and blessed their march home. Then the drums started to roll and the horns started to blow and feet begun to march in beat with the music, the strength of their coordinated footfalls sending tremors through this building as the large parade headed out to join the main force which was waiting in the park where I had met Ares at the night of Victory. Waiting to finally go home. And Ares joined them, because he had to speak to these other people too. I also felt Kalian's excitement over the ongoing antics. He sure had never seen anything like it, and he was so proud to be a part of this great movement and to be there with his father.

I returned my attention to the sight pool, where the stagecoach was now crossing an impressive bridge with high spans painted in bright colours and inlaid with gold. The Rainbow Bridge I remembered it being called, the way home to the Anatolian gods. And I raised a brow out of consternation. Was the patient residing there? With the gods? And what could possibly Xena achieve that these gods had failed to do? It sure was a mystery, and I wished Ares had been here with me to see it too. I knew that he, with his experience, could make out something I had missed, understand something that I, with my limited comprehension of the divine world as well as the Anatolian culture, failed to perceive.

Now the stagecoach reached the end of the bridge where two exotic beings mounted on unicorns were guarding a gleaming silver gate. First I thought the beings were statues of some kind, because both they and their steeds were silvery and stood completely still. But they saluted the arriving carriage and lowered their crossed axe-spears to provide passage. The mighty silver inlaid gate swung open and the vehicle was admitted in. I shifted attention point to the inside the stage coach. And not surprisingly was Xena awestruck with eyes large as wagon wheels, while Chizay looked more bored than anything, where she was sitting opposite of my friend with half-closed lids and fanning herself with languid sweeps.

The stagecoach was then passing trough magnificent gardens with an endless amount of exotic flowers, statues and fountains. The gardens were very neat, they seemed to be trimmed into perfection, and here and there I could spot mortal men and women working with the plants, removing dead leaves and cutting off stray branches. Every one of these workers carried a kind of silver collar, probably a sort of ID bracelet showing that they were allowed to stay at the divine island. As the stagecoach drew nearer the mortals stopped whatever they were doing and fell on their knees with their foreheads pressed to the ground. Ridiculous, after all Chizay inside didn't pay their existence a bit of attention. The difference to how the Greeks were behaving towards Ares was striking; I could never imagine any of those people joking with a god like the warriors in the basement had done yesterday when Ares showed off his knife stunts.

While the stagecoach rolled through the gardens and around an artificial lake I went and filled up a glass of fruit juice and wondered when Ares and Kalian were coming back. Then I posed myself a bit more comfortable as Xena's ride drew up on a stone-laid ground in front of a grand palace coloured in pink and gold and with high pointy arches. There were more of these silver guards, several of them walked up to the stagecoach and one opened up the door and helped Xena out and I understood that the women had reached the end of their trip. My friend was shielding her eyes against the sudden strength of the sunlight and admiring the large palace while Chizay was exiting from behind. The goddess didn't require any help, she was agile and graceful when she half levitated down to the ground and with a few fleet steps passed Xena and took the lead towards the pink palace.

I wondered what awaited Xena behind those colourful walls. I could tell by her body language that she had turned nervous now when she was following Chizay and the escort of silver beings up high stairs and inside gold-plaited iron gates, across a courtyard with potted plants, fountains and painted marble statues and up to another set of large doors. More silver guards were there and they opened these doors in a procedure similar to the one which had admitted Xena and Chizay trough the bridge gate and once again my friend became welcomed into a sacred and awesome place. I realized my nerves were getting the better of me, I felt as if I was sitting on needles, and I so wanted Ares to be there, just to have someone to talk to and a hand to squeeze.

Then followed some boring minutes while Xena followed Chizay up stairs and across corridors, which while they were magnificent to look at provided with little more excitement than more silver beings and mortals with their foreheads pressed against the floor. I drank more juice and listened to the silence of the late morning. The only thing heard were the gulls outside and some soldiers talking a few rooms away, discussing about going home and what was waiting for them there. Family of course but also the fear of unemployment and other insecurities.  
"I don't know if my kids will recognize me." one of them was saying.  
"Yes, and I left directly from school. I'm worried that no one will be hiring a former soldier" the other pointed out.

I listened to them for a while and meanwhile Xena and Chizay had entered a darkened chamber deep inside of the palace. At the far side was a large four poster bed and there laid a being who was obviously the patient Xena was expected to treat. And it was no regular patient, far from it, it was a dying god.


	10. Observations from a borderline

**Observations from a borderline**

"A god!" I heard myself blurt out, almost spilling my juice. I had to look again at the fragile-looking patient in the four poster bed, to make sure I was not mistaken, but the aura gave the man with the wax-coloured skin away. There were yellows and orange in that faltering aura, telling me it was a ruler- and city god lying there. As well as some white hinting at weather abilities. A once powerful god no doubt. But what could harm a man like that and put him on the brink of death? And how could they possibly expect Xena to help him? Or was it...?

The swarthy and slender man who was sitting next the dying god rose from his chair, he seemed to echo my doubts, a confused look upon his comely face as he scratched his beard.  
"Chizay, what have you been thinking? This is but a mortal medic. She doesn't have what it takes. I told you we're going to need a..."  
"A god, yeah. A healing god. And she will be on her way soon."  
"What do you mean?"

"This - Xena - is but bait. The one we want is her best friend. A Karkheidian healer goddess named Narinda who have been working in Darangorlad for a bit more than two years. We've been having our eyes upon her for a while, thinking her being worth recruiting. Unfortunately she has allied herself with the Greeks now, after being seduced by their Ares."  
"The blood thirsty one?"  
"Yes, he made her pregnant and now she's living together with him so we could not approach her the way we originally planned. So we have brought this Xena here to lure Narinda to come to her. If the healer goddess doesn't help us she'll see the death of her old friend."

"But we don't have the time to send a messenger to..."  
"Don't worry, Damak. She already knows. She's spying upon us right now, you see!"

At those words I backed off involuntarily and so fast that I toppled the scrying pool and as it fell down from the table with a clatter the water was spilled out over the floor. Swearing out loud I pressed my fists to my temples. It had been a trap all the way. A trap to lure me to that place. The poor Xena was but a mean to get me there.  
"Ares" I sobbed and then I started to cry uncontrollable. I had no idea about what to do.

¨*o¨o*¨

I don't know how long it took until my love found me sitting in almost the same position, tears streaming down my face. His intuition had warned him that something was wrong and thus he had asked Sthenephon to watch over Kalian for a while before he came sprinting up to me. Ares kneeled in front of me and took my hands in his, having me blink away my tears and meeting his concerned brown eyes:  
"Didi - what is wrong? What happened? Is it - Xena?"

I told him what had happened, what I had seen and heard, and he sighed and shook his head.  
"Those bastards! Always dealing with cards beneath the table. And people ask me why I'm fighting them. This is not the first time these gods have been playing foul games of this kind."  
"Ares, what are we going to do?"  
"Go there of course. Go there and get Xena out. I won't let them hurt her."  
"Thank you" I leaned over and hugged my beloved hard, the tears forming in my eyes now were of joy rather than sorrow. I could count on him. I could always count on my Ares. I should have known that!

"But Ares - these gods are... How many are they? Can we liberate her without..? What if they hurt her? Can we really prevent that?"  
"Of course. We just have to do this the sneaky way. We need to start over with the scrying, see where they have put her now when that little charade towards her is over."  
"Poor Xena! Did I tell that Chizay had noticed me scrying upon her all the time?"

"No – but I'm not surprised. There are gods who have those abilities. Some of my siblings do. Still it matters little at the moment; there are several other fail-proof ways to find Xena within Rhembosia. I have some aces up my coat too, you see. Nevertheless, first of all we need to organize our leave taking. We're going to need arms and some other useful tools we can carry with us in an easy way. You should bring some medical supplies as well, we might be needing them. Kalian will have to stay here with Sthen and the others of course. But it won't take long..."

"Are you sure?"  
"Didi! Trust me! I know this business; I've been in it for centuries. I've been liberating hundreds of poor sods in peril before your Xena. A lot of them in far worse situations to be true."  
"But these gods..."  
"Are aggressive and vulgar-mouthed yes. But they're decimated these days. Far from their former glory. The one you saw in that bed is Ikaton, the man who used to lead their once powerful pantheon."  
"Like your father does in Greece."

"Yes. But Ikaton has had some troublesome centuries. First two of his sons defect him and travel eastwards to find glory and women instead of marrying those Ikaton wanted them to marry. One of them was killed by Baal and the other one disappeared somewhere between Babylon and India. Probably someone killed him too, although our intelligence failed to find out when and who. I think it might've been Baal too. Or perhaps Marduk."  
"I don't know any of these gods." I whispered. Ares rubbed my back, upper arms and shoulders and went on:

"I'll tell you about these two later. They were quite humungous both of them. What happened afterwards is that the three remaining sons started to fight us Greeks without their father's consent. Since then I've killed two of them. Taniroth you know about and his younger brother Telkor I put to rest at the end of the last Greek-Anatolian war thirty years ago. One son remains, Saion, and where he is no one know at the moment. Saion's son is Damak who you saw with Ikaton. And Chizay is a daughter of Telkor."  
"That is why she hates you so much. You killed her father."  
"Yes I did. Although she ought to know as well as I and the rest who marsh off to war that such are the rules of the game. Either you kill or you become killed. Or you stay at home."

"So there's Chizay and Damak. And the dying Ikaton. Any more gods?"  
"Yes, Damak's wife Lelda and their son Okran. Okran might be aspiring upon the position of war god now when Taniroth is gone, but I don't know if he has what it takes. Besides being crazy enough." Ares laughed sarcastically.

"You're not crazy, beloved."  
"Thanks, Didi. Then Ikaton has two daughters too - Liko and Lossa, none of them have made any lasting imprint on the patterns of history. Neither has Lossa's son Balnak, he's mostly into drinking, eating and sleeping around. But what we need to watch out for are the Semlis. Those you referred to as 'the silver beings'. One and one they are not that impressive, one dark warrior might step on them and they crack. But they are like wasps - plenty and plenty and thus they can sting you really bad."  
"I have remedies for wasps, Ares."  
"Good!" My love laughed. "Then nothing's going to stop us!"

¨*o¨o*¨

The sun was beaming down relentlessly from a whitish blue sky and the air was shimmering with heat as Ares and I landed on a rock outcropping of one of the steep, snow-capped mountains surrounding the Rhembosian area. We had got here after some fifteen minutes of flight across the Anatolian land. The city lied within a round valley, surrounded on three sides by the mighty Tolian Mountains, like a natural and impressive city wall. On the fourth side the endless Anan prairie opened up with its brownish grass and thickets of thorn bushes and cacti. It was a desolate and harsh scenery, far from the lush nature of the sea-side landscapes. The only animals living here were undemanding grazers, snakes and insects. A lot of insects. The river Rhem still flew like a blue ribbon across the valley but Ares told that it usually dried up as the season moved on.

"That's when their gods leave for their summer home up in the mountains." Ares said. "Quite a bit north-east of here. It's not like Olympos though, far from it. It's more like a fortress. A cave home."  
"Sounds secure."  
"Yeah, but confining."  
"At the same time, living like that on an island in the middle of a city - not much privacy I take it. Lots of mortals trying to reach you."

"Oh, they guard their perimeter well enough" Ares commented. "You saw for yourself the gates and the guardians of the Rainbow Bridge. They won't let any intruder in."  
"What about other gods?"  
"I guess they're not expecting them. If we're prompt enough we can get trough. And I'm convinced we are, Didi."

I looked at the city of high spires out there in the middle of the valley, its perimeter some four miles east of our vantage point. Rhembosia reminded me slightly of the mighty Inthorergon, but the Greek city lacked those high towers, instead it sprawled off in all directions save for west, where the Aegean halted it. Inthorergon, which had lived in the shadow of Troy for so many centuries, until the Argive forces decided to destroy the latter in The Great Civil War. That was less than two hundred years ago and in that short period of time Inthorergon had grown ten times its original size and become by far the largest of the Eastern Hellas cities. Still Rhembosia seemed even grander and under other circumstances I might have wanted to go exploring that city instead, find what beauty and secrets she held.

"Here" Ares handed me a plum-sized orb of silver.  
"What's it for?"  
"It's called a 'searcher'. It'll locate Xena for us, so we won't have to scry and risk being discovered. But since you know her better than I you'll have to imprint her vision into it so it can find her."  
"How do I do that?"  
"This orb contains two kinds of magic fields. One for transportation and another one which compares an image of what or who you are looking for with what it perceives around itself. What you have to do is connect to the latter field and impose a picture of Xena upon it. As well as some kind of emotion connected to the real Xena, I guess she feels angst and anxiety at the moment. Put it in there as well!"

I concentrated and did as Ares told. It took some tries to get it right, to make the image detailed enough for the orb to find Xena and still not making it too large. A large reference image would take too long to process, Ares explained, and the orb would have difficulties to locate Xena quickly. On the other hand it was tiny enough to avoid being discovered save for the most observant eyes, I guessed. Especially eyes who didn't expect such a little thing to come snooping around. Finally I returned the orb to my beloved who threw it into the air towards the Anatolian city. Ares' throw was powerful and the velocity of it lasted long. Then, after a while the orb started to fly by itself, shimmering like a falling star as it headed towards Rhembosia.

"Amazing gadget!" I marveled. "Where did you get that one?"  
"My little brother made it. Hephaestos."  
"Hephaestos. The divine manufacturer. I should have guessed."

Then I said nothing for a while as my eyes followed the orb which was closing in on the city. I regarded it until it arrived into Rhembosia and disappeared behind some buildings. Then I turned to Ares again.  
"So now what?"  
"We wait."  
"How long?"  
"'Till the orb returns, which might take a while, so better make yourself comfortable, dear."  
"Easy enough with you around." I smiled, leaned back against the war god's wide chest, threaded my slender fingers between his large ones and let my head rest upon his upper torso. In return my beloved nuzzled his head against my shoulder and kissed me on my neck.  
"Then let's get comfy, Didi" he chuckled. Then he started to kiss me the way only he could, and I turned around in his arms and returned his affection, certain we would use the waiting time well.

¨*o¨o*¨

Ares was right; we had to wait quite a while until the orb finally returned. The sun had set, the stars were coming out one by one and in the east a large, yellow cheese of a moon hung halfway over the horizon. We had sat down, Ares with his back against the rock and I between his long legs. First I didn't know what that fizzing sound in the air was, thought it being a big insect, a dragonfly perhaps. But Ares rose and plucked the object out of the sky and then he placed it on the ground in front of us. He didn't let go entirely through, but rested two fingers upon the shiny orb for a moment. Then suddenly it seemed to come alive, gleaming and fizzing anew, like it was going to take off again. But instead a purplish blue ray shoot up towards Ares' hand and swiftly he pulled his hand upwards and slightly to his left. In accordance with his motion the ray formed itself into a broad fan shape and upon that shimmering screen a building turned up. A building I recognized. The Anatolian divine palace.

"She's still there?"  
"Yes."  
Then the picture turned, tilted and we could regard the magnificent palace from above for a few moments instead, before it zoomed in against a dark courtyard and a lit window. Now I saw Xena again. I guess I had feared some kind of dungeon or oubliette, but my friend sat in a luxurious suite even better than that hotel room where I had found her the same morning. Still that was no comfort for her, she was crying heartbreakingly, and I could tell that she had done so for a while. There were no feelings connected to that image, still I could sense her fear and loneliness as a hard slam in my belly. My poor friend! Set up by foreign gods in a stranger land. That must've been even more terrible than to battle with Ares and getting injured, I guessed. After all in a war you knew that these things could happen. But as a healer in a neutral city you didn't expected to be tricked and kidnapped.

It really felt strange and scary; I was not used to see my friend cry like that. The only times I'd seen Xena with tears in her eyes were when she had failed to save the life of a child. But even then her tears had been restrained and moderate. Not this painful sobbing that made me feel sad, angry and assaulted by a bad conscience at the same time. Why hadn't I paid more attention to Chizay and her plans back in Darangorlad? I had heard the goddess talk, I should've listened in. I should've suspected something.

Then I begun to worry about what it was that killed Ikaton. What if that strange threat would mean a risk for me and Ares as well? How could we defend us from that unknown force? Ares was always talking about knowing the enemy, now here we had something none of us recognized. A dark horse in the game and a terrible one too. How would we deal with it? Would I really be able to cure that dying god if I got the chance? And should I do it? The oath I had sworn to Asklepios once was about always, under whatever circumstances; use my powers and my knowledge to save lives. But this man was the enemy. No matter if he really had sent his sons against The Hellas Commonwealth or not, he was considered the foe. And how would Ares react if I saved Ikaton? Was my beloved ready to sacrifice Xena to see Ikaton dead? No, I realized, then we wouldn't be here at all.

"Didi," Ares interrupted my thoughts. "We got to get moving, the sooner the better."  
"They will suspect that we are coming, right?"  
"Of course they will, so we cannot count on any extensive element of surprise. On the other hand they might not expect us to be around so quick so we can still rock the boat a bit."  
"So what do we do, Crash right in, grab her and zap out."  
"If it was that easy!" Ares smiled. "Then people like me would hardly be needed. No, their pantheon and the place where they keep Xena are most certainly highly guarded. We must find the way in they least expect us to use. And most of all we cannot fly, a flying god is among the easiest thing to discover, it's like calling out 'hey here we are, come and get us!'"  
"I know," I replied. "After all I did run on the ground when I fled from your dark warriors a few days back. Carrying Kalian without tapping in divine strenght. I was so afraid."  
"Yes, you're a smart gal, sweetie. Thus you know we must travel incognito. As mortals."

"Disguised" I smiled slightly. "I'm not sure... I mean I can hide my aura from mortals, have been doing that more or less my whole life. Only a few people knew who I was - those I chose to tell and the all too few immortals I met. But hiding from gods, that's a completely different story. I don't know..."  
"Didilove, cloaking against mortals is quite enough for starters, since there'll only be mortals out in Rhembosia tonight. And most of them being more or less drunk too. Partygoers. Young people celebrating their sprouting lives, war veterans drinking to forget and whores looking for deals. The Anatolian gods are not searching for us, not at the moment at least."  
"How do you know?"  
"Because then they would have watchful eyes down in the city. And I would have sensed them. But there's not a probing soul out there this evening. So either the Anatolians don't expect us so soon – or that's exactly what they do."

"How do you mean?" I wrinkled my brows.  
"That they are more or 'welcoming' us. Setting up the trap. Remember, they want you there. To try curing Ikaton."  
"And we should just walk in to that trap?"  
"No, we'll do our best to avoid it, and still getting Xena out. We can do it, I'm certain!"

I looked at Ares where he stood in the light of the rising moon and looking so heartbreakingly sincere and determined. Ready to fight over a friend of mine who had called him the rudest things. He didn't care about their miserable rapport; he was out to help - to save in spite.  
"I love you, Ares dear." I said and reached up and stroke his whiskered cheek.  
"And I love you, Didi," he replied, took my hand and kissed it gently. "Now, come on, we have a job to do. Let's get going."


	11. The city of high spires

**The city of high spires**

Ares and I flew the few miles to the city perimeter and there we touched ground again, in the dark among some trees in a park, and from that point we started walking. The walled-in park rested mostly in darkness and seemed neglected, with its overgrown paths and dried up fountains filled with old leaves and broken marble statues regarding us with empty eyes. At the end of the park were some buildings, covered in graffiti of the kind you saw all over the world, dirty words mingled with slogans proclaiming the other teams' death. In this case it was not surprisingly the Greeks. None of us chose to comment it.

Between the buildings were two rusty gates locked with a chain and a huge padlock. Ares didn't bother with the chain though; he went directly for the weakest point, the hinges of the left gate. A pull and the gate fell inwards with a large crash which made me hope no one had been around to hear. At least no one who would consider caring. But there was apparently no such person in the vicinity, only some scared crows which took off from the trees. Ares and I left the park and started down a dark street where the only light came from the few lit windows in the buildings beside the road. People's homes, looking cozy and warm. Suddenly I longed to be inside, to cuddle up in front of a fireplace with some hot wine and no cares in the world. The adventure which had almost felt exciting in the afternoon seemed now more like some horrid and unwelcome duty.

"Ares?" I asked. "Will it be hard, this task?"  
"I would lie if I said no," my beloved replied. "But then there are some duties we have to do in life to be able to look us selves in the mirror and feel reasonable proud of whom we see there. And this venture is one of these things."  
"I know what you mean. I cannot abandon Xena. I could never do that."  
"Yes I know. Friendships like that are rare and valuable and should be treasured."

Suddenly the sword was in Ares' hand. He had heard or sensed something I hadn't noted. The next second five or six young punks surrounded us, the leather clad leader a tall but gaunt youth with greasy hair and an eye-patch. He was wielding a large knife, calling for us to surrender our money. The next second, as he became aware of Ares with his impressive blade shining in the moonlight, and the smooth but fast swirls the war god made with it, his eyes widened and he drew breath.  
"Sorry, wrong guys!" he said and then he turned and ran with his pack after him. Ares couldn't help laughing scornfully at them.  
"Witless scum" he commented. "Can't get a decent day job so they earn some pocket money by robbing sole night travelers of what little shards they carry."  
"I remember the kind from Inthorergon. Although I was lucky to never have to deal with them. If I had to walk dark streets in the night I usually did it invisible."  
"Yeah you got to have some benefits from being a god" Ares smiled, put his sword away and took my hand again.

We walked fast, almost on the upper limit of what a mortal can manage. Never beyond, to risk rising any suspicious eyes from those few we met. In that way it didn't take us long to reach the more populated areas of Rhembosia. Here it became harder to proceed as quickly, because the streets and alleys were crowded with people, and the noise turned unbelievable after the relative silence of the empty streets earlier. Voices mingled with music from tenfold of sources, horse neighing, barking dogs, bells and chimes, crashes and bangs of unseen things breaking. Light fell in cascades from the open doors and windows of all the pubs, bars and inns lining the streets. Well populated places almost all of them if one should go by the noise.

The people here were not unexpectedly mostly party goers, both young and old. Ares had been right, the older looked like war veterans, quite a few of them with scars or worse defects obtained in battle. An eye-patch here, a missing limb there, still most of these grim-looking men (I saw few, next to no women who I guessed were veterans) seemed to carry their injures as medallions earned for bravery.

There were the hookers too. Under-dressed and over-painted women and a few young men as well, calling out for the passer-bys, offering their commodities. They competed loudly with the barkers of the bars who were hornblowing the benefits of their establishments. Sometimes these employees threw people out too. More than once we saw them haul out some poor sod who had had too much to drink and dispatch him in the street. A few of these former guests were even so drunk that they stayed where they landed, the sorry asses. Others stumbled up and left, often with obscene words and gestures directed at those who had manhandled them. Here or there some labours of the law were trying to maintain some kind of order, fighting a losing battle it seemed.

Hand in hand Ares and I snaked across the sidewalks in a random zigzag pattern, seeking out those narrow openings appearing in the crowd and then closing as fast, as if they were breathing membranes of some kind of large organism. The organism that was the city of Rhembosia.

A few people paid attention to us, mostly because of Ares' large size.  
"Hey big guy!" and "Hey Greek!" I could hear a few of them call. Still we couldn't care less. And I bet those who yelled at us had forgotten us in an instance anyway. There were two or three big bastards blocking our way as well, with the clear intention of picking fight with Ares, just for the reason of his size. But Ares just glared at them and they backed off quickly enough, one thug in spiked leather so fast that he tumbled backwards over a garbage can and fell in the middle of rubbish. I had a hard time containing my laughter at that little incident.

After a couple of twists and turns we crossed the square which seemed to be the very heart of the nightlife with high profiled clubs and casinos blaring out their offers. There was a white-bearded old man selling some kind of barbequed meat sticks from a stand, and Ares stopped and bought three of them. Two for himself and then he handed me one.  
"I'm not really hungry" I protested. I was so worried about Xena that my stomach was filled with jagged little balls of thorn, so how could I even think of making room for some food?  
"Trust me; you're going to need the nourishment. We might have to wait for quite some time until we'll get the chance to eat again."

I took one obedient chew on the saucy meat, and then I gladly ate the rest, it was actually really good, spicy and crisp. Ares gave me one of those 'I told you so' looks and I grinned back at him. Once again I thought that this could actually have been a great escapade if our mission wasn't so dire.  
"We should do something like this for fun one day" I suggested. "Go exploring."  
"Mmm hmmm" Ares nodded with his mouth full.

Then as we crossed the square both of us sensed her. A deity in the vicinity. Some goddess on a mission, obviously on the search for something. We both stopped, trying to feel in what that woman could have her mind set upon. Then Ares whistled silently.  
"No problem with that one," he said. "She's out hunting mortal men. Someone to get laid with. Pretty pathetic."  
"Poor thing," I replied, as I could sense her thoughts too. "You know her?"  
"She's not a member of the Anatolian pantheon if that's what you mean. No, I guess she's some lone she-wolf hunting on her own, not wanting to have anything to do with other gods. There are after all quite a few of these immortals around. Proud and wounded immortals, with some not so glorious past they want to forget all about."

I sighed as we entered another narrow street. That had almost been my situation after leaving Inthorergon and Lothan. A desire to flee from everything and never ever getting emotionally involved again. On the other hand Lothan hadn't been a god, and I had next to no experience with immortals back then, so I had no idea what things would be like among my own. Then my Ares had come along and changed all that...

Finally we reached a major, tree-lined avenue. This street was oddly enough both darker and less populated, but then I guess we had left the most central nightlife areas behind us now, a few fancy restaurant catering to the wealthy being the sole exception. The avenue was sloping slightly upwards and at the end of it I spotted an imposing building lit with hundreds of torches.  
"The royal palace" Ares said, as if he was reading my thoughts. "That's where their king resides."  
"In the shadow of his gods" I replied.  
"Well most monarchs do, even if it's more obvious in this case. And while my father listens to the rulers of Hellas, the Anatolian gods seem to have very much enough with their internal affairs."

Some ten minutes of walking took us up that avenue and across the impressive but empty square in front of the fenced in palace. At the main gates of the impressive building a relief of sentry was taking place, otherwise there wasn't really anything happening around. Very few people could be seen. It was so different when I compared it to what I had seen from the Greek counterparts. At the palaces of the Greek monarchs there were nighttime parties being thrown almost all the time, with a lot of people coming and going, music and celebrations being heard wide around. Then there was one more important thing missing.  
"No statues." I commented.  
"What statues?"  
"Of the gods. The Greek palaces always have statues of you guys in front of them. Guardian symbols. Doesn't seem to be in vogue here."  
"I guess not" Ares replied. "Then again these gods are a bit more alienated towards the mortals in spite of living so near then."  
"Or perhaps that's why. Perhaps they feel crowded."

"Still you, Didi and a lot of other gods live a good part of your lives among mortals."  
"Yes but 'as' mortals. I don't act as a goddess, thus no one demands godlike deeds from me. They just expect a healer and that's what they're getting and it's fine by them. So I get my peace and quiet at night and during weekends. I can also walk the streets and be left alone. I sensed the difference already back at our Headquarter. There were so many war causalities, and in the end you had to bark at them to leave me alone, before they sucked my energies out. Remember that, honey?"  
"You have a point. You always want to help so many people, Didi," Ares replied as we left the square behind us and reached the river walk.

This was the better parts of the town, with those high castle-like houses with towers and spires I had spotted from afar, golden roofs shining in the moonlight and a lot of burners, torches and lamps lighting up the places. Those chemical fires had nothing against divine light of course, but it was still impressive sights. I found myself gaping at marvels of architecture, hanging gardens, pointy arcs and exotic sculptures. Still no divine statues though. There weren't many people out and around here, only two stage coaches passed us by, one stopping a few houses ahead and some elegantly dressed people stepping out. Then there were guards posted on some walls. Guards with crossbows and grim faces, and I wondered who they were looking out for in a nice area like this. Burglars and thieves perhaps, I imagined these houses holding a lot worth stealing.

Off in the distance we saw a shining structure, gleaming as if it had been a lost part of the moon itself. The divine rainbow bridge leading up to the Pantheon of the Anatolian gods, although the night and the moon had temporarily deprived it of its colours.

That was where we were heading.

¨*o¨o*¨

Ares and I stopped in front of the bridge, just acoss the street and looking at the large gates at its near end. Those weren't guarded by those silver beings mounted on unicorns which I had seen earlier. Instead there were some ugly trolls standing in front of the gate. Huge beasts with sharp fangs protruding from their underbites and some kind of horns emitting from their bald sculls as well. Winscatian Ogres. I had never seen these beasts earlier, only heard about them. They were large, wile and most of all more intelligent than the common ogres. Very often their opponents tended to underestimate them and tried to foul them, the way you could trick ogres with lesser brains. Trying something like that against a Winscatian often ended fatally.

There was no way to sneak around these beasts if we didn't want to take in the air or otherwise use too much divine magic. Which would most definitely lead us to being spotted and the little chance we had at surprising our enemy laid waste. Same thing with entering some other way, Ares had told me earlier that the risk for a discovery was smallest if we took the main entrance, because no one actually expected us to. 'Hide in plain sight' he had called it.

"So it's engagement time I take it?" I turned to Ares. He nodded:  
"Didi, do I insult you if I tell you to wait here while I deal with these ogres?"  
"No, not really. I'm not one of those women who mind a man fighting for me. As long as I know he does it better than I. I'm keener on the idea of specializing after all."  
"Good! Then - wait here, honey."  
"Aye aye!" I gave him one of those salutes the Dark Warriors use to give him, and then I sat down on a banister of a staircase up to the nearest building.

After checking his equipment Ares went off and did what a warrior has to do. Proudly he walked up to the gate and said something to one of the ogres. He was met with a roaring laughter and then he made a gesture and said something again. More laughter. Thus he reached for the sword at his back but the ogres had quick reflexes and were soon armed too. And as Ares lashed out at the one nearest they intercepted him at the same time, huge axes flying. But two ogres were no match for Ares, he ducked fast and spun out of reach and instead they collided with each other. One of them took a blow with the axe and was down in a second, clutching one big hand over a cut that seemed fatal from where I was standing, entrails spilling out on the ground.

Growling the ogre bent to his knees, dropping his axe as he tried in vain to heal his wound. The other one forced Ares backwards, but the god had a plan with that too, because he retreated in a direction which made it possible for him to retrieve the dropped axe. Then he made a fast move beheading the injured ogre and followed up with an attack against the one still standing. Now that ogre was the one backing instead, Ares pushing him up against the gate of the bridge. The ogre made several efforts to strike out at Ares but the god of war avoided them all, with what hardly seemed as an effort.

Then, as his opponent hit the wall with a large thud which somehow made him lose the balance, Ares seized the short moment and with a backhand sweep of the axe he sliced the belly open on that ogre too. Finally he used his sword to cut through the ribs and as he pulled it out he had the ogre's still pulsing heart pierced on its edge, some veins trailing after, and blood spraying from the gash. In spite of being a medic and quite used to blood and gore I felt a bit revolted. But that was nothing against the ogre. That one looked with terror at his own pump a short second before the light went out in his eyes and he slid down the wall and slumped in a bleeding heap on the cobblestones. It had all been over in less than three minutes.

"All set, now let's go inside and party" Ares called out to me, and I started up to the gate of the bridge. Ares grinned as he held up the ogre's heart towards me.  
"Need some protein, sweetie?"  
"Yukk, I think I'll pass on that" I gulped. He had the sickest humour from time to time, my beloved.

Then I saw something in the corner of my eye.  
"Ares!" I called out in terror as one of the ogres, the beheaded one, started to rise.

But Ares was still grinning.  
"Just some cover up" he said as the dead beast rose and returned to its former position by the right gate, looking like it was still just guarding it. The second ogre did the same thing a few moments later and I stared in disbelief at the strange magic being used.  
"This will have it looking like nothing at all took place here, that all is calm and normal." Ares said. "Doesn't hold for a closer scrutiny but I think it'll have to do for the time being."

"Ares" I said, poking with my toe at the ogre head on the ground. "This..."  
"Yeah right." The God of War bent down, grabbed the severed head by one of the large, pointy ears like it was the most natural item in the world and then he lobbed it in the air as if it had been a ball. The head landed neatly on top of the shoulders of the ogre to the right.  
"Score! 1 - 0 to team Ares!" he said and I just shook my head and laughed.

Finally he removed that gruesome heart from his blade and with no further ceremonies he threw it into the river where it probably became a night snack for some fish with insomnia. After having dried off his blade on one of the dead ogres' cloak and returned the axes to their uncaring owners Ares opened up the gate and we sneaked trough.

The next moment we were walking on gleaming silver. Silver surrounded by the moonlit mists swirling up from the slowly floating river below. It felt like a dream, strikingly beautiful and surreal, especially taking in mind the violence which had just taken place a few minutes ago. The bridge was longer than it had seemed, seeing it from the outside. Thus it took quite a while until we passed under those huge spans and were halfway across. There I broke the silence of awe:  
"What do we do with the beasts by the other gate? Fight them as well?"  
"We'll see when we get there." Ares replied.

"A pity that gods who build such magnificent structures should be so violent."  
"I guess it's the times we live in. Times of violence and beauty. Stark contrasts and clashing emotions. Love, hate, glory and defeat. And to be true, I wouldn't want it otherwise."  
"Me neither" I surprised myself by saying. And I had to confess to myself that Ares' fighting skills didn't trouble me as much as they excited me. His swift dealing with the monstrous ogres had held a beauty in itself. A magnificent and intricate dance of violence, a dance towards victory where every step was calculated with a passionate exactness. Ares knew what he did and he was frank and honest about it too. He didn't pretend to be anything else than a god of war, and that integrity was one of the things that made me love him. I had had my fair share of hypocrites in my life after all.

The gate on the far side was guarded by the same kind of ogres as the ones Ares had taken out before. The silver beings on unicorns were nowhere to be seen, they were probably just posted there during daytime when the surroundings were safer and they could be used to show off with as well as for regular guarding. The Anatolians did probably fear that whatever alien enemies might come for them would do so in the dark of the night. This time we deployed another straightforward strategy. We turned invisible just before the ogres were able to spot us, after all that doesn't take much magic. Being so close to the pulsing heart of forces that was the pantheon itself our little trickle of energy would be almost impossible to make out.

Just a few steps before reaching the ogres Ares turned visible; thus these beasts didn't even get a chance to see what was coming for them. Apparently they were not as skilled as the ones the war god had defeated at the city side; after all they were just the second perimeter guards. Ares took them out fast and merciless, this time not even bother with having it look like they were standing up. He just left them slumped in their own blood. Then again - as he had told me earlier - the ogres usually stood guard the whole night, not just a few hours like the mortal guards over at the palace. They weren't ogres for nothing. So if we were lucky it might take until the morning before the carnage would be discovered. And here there was probably no one who might come upon them accidently like with the ogres by the city side gate.

After these beasts were taken care of we slipped through the second couple of gates and we were inside - on the very island of the Anatolian pantheon. This place was oddly still, oddly abandoned. The gardens were dark, not a divine light was burning anywhere. Nothing stirred, not even a night bird or an underbrush rodent. It felt almost scary, and thus I scanned the garden in spite of being certain that Ares had already done so. As I should've guessed, there wasn't a soul around. The only signs of life came from inside the palace.

And the final walk through the gardens of the pantheon island became - well, a walk in the park.

¨*o¨o*¨

"Xena?"

My friend looked up at the sound of my voice:  
"Didi?" first it was as if she didn't believe her eyes, blinking away tears and sweeping them off her cheeks. Then she rose from the bed where she had been lying curled up and came running towards me and threw herself against me, her arms circling my chest. "Oh, Nari, I knew you would come! Did you..." then her emerald eyes shifted focus and widened slightly: "Ares?"  
"Yes," the god of war nodded. "Of course I could not abandon Didi's best friend."  
"But you... I said horrible things to you back there in Darangorlad."

"It changes nothing." Ares said. "I do have my honor, it lives here." He hinted at his heart with one big fist. "And as the warrior I am I wear armor around it to prevent words like yours from taking effect. Besides those expressions were nothing I hadn't heard before. Plenty of times. Now come on, we're better be out of here before..."

"Not so fast," someone was saying, and I looked up. Chizay.

The next second we found us surrounded by the raven haired Anatolian goddess and about forty of those silver servants Ares had called Semlis.  
"I knew this went too stinkin' easy", I heard Ares mutter under his breath.  
"It's all very sweet to hear you talk, Greeks." Chizay continued. "You Ares trying to sound so honorable and noble, while all of us really know that you're nothing but a ruthless and bloodthirsty killer. But here is where your career ends, war god!"


	12. The Dying God

**The dying god**

I heard Ares pull his sword from the scabbard and in a swift movement engage two of the Semlis. They in turn reached out with their hands, unarmed it first seemed, until I saw that they were transforming their fingers into long, razor-sharp claws. That didn't stop Ares a second though. He had anticipated this I could tell and avoided their slashes with ease.  
"Get out, Didi!" he called. "Take Xena and get the chaos out of here! Now!"  
"But.."  
"Do it!" At the same time as the words left his mouth he split the two Semlis in half and they sort of melted down to the ground - where they started to reshape themselves again, regaining their form. Ares stepped on one of them and it stopped moving but the other one engaged again, and then Ares became covered by those creatures which attacked him from everywhere, slashing with their silver claws, ripping Ares' leather jacket and pants into shreds. His comparison to insects really seemed frightenly accurate now, large, silvery and very lethal insects. And all of them were attacking my love. For some reason no one made any move against me or against Xena, who was still clinging to me, now more out of fear than affection.

"You're not going anywhere!" I heard Chizay say, her voice dripping of ice as she came up to me and laid a hand with long, hard fingers upon my arm. I almost expected her fingers as well to turn into iron claws and pierce my skin. Meantime Ares wasn't relenting, he kept on hacking and slashing, slowly but steady liberating himself of the assault. The Semlis had managed to harm him in parts, but he had healed quickly, only small trickles of icorish blood escaping from his wounds and dripping down on the white marble floor, glittering like molten cupper in the soft light. Xena was looking from Chizay to Ares and then back again, and her green eyes were large with fear.

"Stop!" I called out. "Stop it all of you!"  
"What?" the Anatolian goddess raised a hard-plucked brow in surprise.  
"You heard me, Chizay! Stop your drones! And let's talk about this in a civilized manner instead."

After a few moments of status quo, while Ares terminated six or seven more of the Semlis with wide swings of his sword, Chizay gave an order to her beings and they retreated quickly from the combating Greek. Ares lowered his sword, he appeared unharmed again and he didn't even look sweaty, yet there were more than twenty Semlis lying lifeless on the floor around the war god, trampled and broken. His brown eyes looked at me with something between bemusement and consternation and a silent message telling me he could've taken them all. But that was not the point at the moment. Far from it.

"Chizay!" I addressed the Anatolian goddess. I know they were keen on rank and honorifics here but I didn't let that bother me. "Earlier I heard you say that you knew I have been spying upon you while you lured Xena into the presence of Ikaton with your little charade. Then you must also be aware of the fact that I know the reason for Xena - and us being here. So let's stop this nonsense right here and now and take me to your sick pantheon head instead!"  
"Can you..." Chizay started. She sure looked surprised, I guess she had been picturing herself forcing me by the tip of the blade, perhaps with the help of her silver beings.  
"Yes. Just take me there, and let's get down to business. Ares, Xena, you come along too!"

Ares looked a bit astounded that I had become the one who gave the orders, but he sheeted his sword with a grin and began to follow us out through the door to Xena's guest room and down a long hallway. I had thought those Semlis being totally soulless, like the legendary automatons of Hephaestos, but they seemed to have some rudimentary sense of self-preservation at least, because when Ares passed them they backed off hurriedly.

Ares and I exchanged some quick looks. 'Trust me' mine told and his eyes twinkled a bit. In an instant I knew he had understood, even if he was slightly at loss at my antics.

¨*o¨o*¨

We were escorted under silence trough the palace, across the same kind of hallways and great rooms as I had seen in my scrying bowl earlier in the day. The palace did hold a refined and elegant beauty and under other circumstances I was positive I'd appreciated it more. The colourful art on the walls, the gold inlaid ornaments on window sills and doors, the ebony and ivory furniture and the large chandeliers hanging from the high, vaulted ceilings. And everywhere the amphorae with fresh flowers in wonderful colours and arrangements. Hand knit eastern style carpets covering the floors and dampening our steps. But now, naturally, I could hardly be bothered.

After several twists and turns I found myself seeing the darkened chamber with the ailing god in again. For real this time, and I could sense it in my whole being, the bad energies of illness and appalling magic at work here. The air inside this room was dampen and hot and lacked of oxygen and the only light came from two man-high iron burners holding chemical fire which blazed with sparkling, yellow flames. These burners were placed on each side of that large four poster bed with the resting god in.

Ikaton just laid there in his big bed, covered by silken and wool blankets and hides of exotic animals like striped zebras and tigers and spotted leopards. And close up he looked even more in peril, his aura fading, his chakras spinning slow and irregular - a true sign that he was nearing the terminal phase. The only visible sign of life was his torso heaving slowly as he was breathing. It felt almost impossible to believe that it was a once mighty god and head of a pantheon who laid there, his features sunken and his skin almost as white as the pillow he was resting his tired head on. His lids were closed and long but sparse stripes of snow white hair floated out over the pillow.

Beside him on a coach sat a pale woman in a turquoise gown and with auburn hair tied up with black and yellow pearls and gold-inlaid jade combs. She had been wetting Ikaton's dry lips with a small towel but when we entered the room she put the towel and the bowl of water aside and looked up.  
"Chizay?" she said with a silent, almost whispering, but still accusatory voice. "Another of your games again?"  
"Stuff it, auntie!" Chizay snapped. "These people here are Greeks who..."

The auburn-haired goddess rose, suddenly more vigorous as well as angered:  
"I won't tolerate Greeks inside those walls, take them away with you again, you hateful bitch!"  
"They are here escorting Narinda. The divine medic I told you earlier about. She's the only one who can help Ikaton now. And she's willing to do it for the sake of her best friend who..."  
"Do you think I'm stupid or what? That man over there is Ares. He has probably come to finish what he started by killing my brothers! And your father, Chizay, or have you already forgotten that?"

I glanced at Ares at that moment, it looked almost as if he was laughing.  
"No I have not. And perhaps I should ask him to kill you too, Liko. Or at least cut out your tongue!"  
"How dare you..."

¨*o¨o*¨

I stopped listening to the bickering Anatolians. Instead I approached the ill god in the bed, reaching out with my spirit to try to understand what was at work here, what was killing this deity. Yes, I could clearly sense it. There was some evilly deployed chaos magic surrounding Ikaton. A magic force which was drawing the poor man's spirit away from his body. Slowly but unyielding. If I looked in the right, fourth-dimensional angle I could perceive how Ikaton's life spirit was circling and spiraling up from his body like a thread of bluish white gold, surrounded by chilly smoke. Then it became pulled towards a place a bit above him where it disappeared down into the Other dimensions. There my eye-sight couldn't follow it if I didn't deploy special magic, and I refrained from that because I understood that I needed to be thrifty and careful with my powers if I should be able to stop this development and save Ikaton. I had after all never done anything like this before and I was quite certain that it would be the hardest thing I had ever done so far.

The essence of Ikaton wasn't being pulled towards the Hades though, far from it. Whoever had instigated the magic was planning to steal away this man's soul and dispose of it somewhere in the Neverunder wildlands where it wouldn't by any means ever be found again.

The Hades dimensions were familiar for immortals. Somewhere yonder there resided the pale and horrid god with the same name. He had been Zeus' old brother in arms during the Titan wars and later on he became appointed guardian of the dead mortal souls and the cycle of life, death and reincarnation. It was known territory, beaten tracks, and although the Hades was large, desolate and scary, most gods could navigate down there just using their divine powers and common sense. Crossing the Styx, the Acheron and the fields of Asphodel was doable if not exactly pleasant. But the Neverunder dimensions were endless and endless and once lost in those never-ending wastes it was almost impossible to get back again. The stories told that Zeus had made it. He had gone far down under, all the way to the Tartarus singularity to get his imprisoned brothers and sisters in arms out. But that was Zeus, he was splendid - one of a kind. But for most gods even thinking about the eternal spaces of Neverunder created vertigo bordering on madness. Naturally I was not venturing down there. Alas I needed to take control of Ikaton's spirit and haul it back again before it became too late.

I remembered Doc Amarylliou back in the Asklepios' academy. He had been a tall, gaunt man in a long, indigo robe and whitening hair and beard. A mortal – one of few – who had the ability for Soul Magic. And who could teach it as well. Usually these gifts come with immortality but every generation sees some rare mortals born with the ability to let their brain open up to the magic deep fields. It's even rarer than ordinary mortal healers or mages. Doctor of Medicine and Magic Amarylliou became the one who teached me and a few others the basics of Soul Magic and Deep Field Magic.

"You will probably never need to use this knowledge," he began by telling us the very first day of our classes with him. "I will be honest with you and confess this even before we start our training course. But it is valuable to know about these things, to know what is at work in this world and what may cause deceases of the soul and the spirit. Perhaps you immortals may use this knowledge someday," here he turned to me, Juturna and Saldon especially, "but that might be in a distant future when I'm not even around anymore. On that occasion I hope that still a fragment of what I told you remains in your memories."

After these words Amarylliou had started the education. He taught us how to sense each other's souls and showed how they could be worked upon. How you could see the anomalies in a sick soul and cure them using several abilities. We were shown how to deploy the strength of our own souls, forces like the kundalini, chakra wheels, spinal silver pillars and brain waves. Amarylliou had told about the dark and evil chaos magic that could harm the soul, injure it or even rip it from the physical body. He showed us the benevolent, orderly magic that could heal the wounds the chaos magic had inflicted, very much in the same way as ordinary healing worked. How frequencies of light and magic rays could work the same way as sanctified amino acids worked in physical healing.

Amarylliou teached us to locate and to dispose of chaos magic, what signs to look for when trying to find it. And he pressed the matter about the importance to not only cure the sick soul but also clean the surroundings of chaos magic, because otherwise it might often spill over and caused harm to the physical body. The same ways as you cleaned germs of your hands and medical tools to avoid infections. And he warned us to be careful around this kind of magic because handled the wrong way it could actually hit back at you, the healer, injure you as well. But there were also protective measures available. Precautions valuable to know when dealing which chaos magic, like shielding your own soul and those around. There were spells to be cast and charms to be used, figures and patterns of powers which provided with magic wavelengths to lock the bad energies out. These were the teachings I now tried to recall.

¨*o¨o*¨

While I had been gauging the hazards the Anatolian goddesses had stopped squabbling and Ares had moved over to stand slightly behind Xena to guard her. She in turn was glancing at my love with mixed feelings; she still didn't trust him I could tell. At the same time she was dead scared of the Anatolians.

I turned to Chizay and Liko:  
"I can do this. But I'm going to need concentration, so what you will have to do is to make sure this place remains undisturbed. I will also be in need of a lot of water during my work. For me as well as for the patient, because we are going to get really hot both of us. And - is it possible to open up a window?"

Chizay opened her mouth but Liko beat her to it:  
"I'll make sure you'll have what you ask for, milady, just do what you can for father! I hope it is not too late." At that moment I saw that the auburn haired Anatolian had tears in her large onyx eyes. Her fine-looking face held an expression I had seen so many times before. The expression of the worried relative. Anxious that her loved one was not going to make it, and too afraid to really trust the medics. Xena had seen it too, and she seemed to relax a bit, feeling a bit safer in the familiarity of the situation, knowing that here was a goddess who was not going to raise her hand against those who had come to help.

Chizay on the other hand - she was still an unknown factor. That she held no real love for Ikaton was clear now, she was only in it to gain as much power as possible for herself and she was using the pantheon head's sickness to play the other gods against each other. I bet she hoped that while they quarreled Ikaton would pass away silently, and then planned to use his death against them as well. I pushed those thoughts away, I was here to save a life and I knew I could trust my dear Ares to keep an eye on both me and Xena while I was doing that.

I climbed up in the middle of the bed so I came to sit opposite of Ikaton's head and with a clear view over his disappearing soul. I knew he didn't have much time left now and that I had to act fast. I could hear the sounds of heavy curtains being drawn aside behind of me and a window opened up. The next second cool, fresh night air began to stream into the room and at once it became easier to both breathe and think clearly.

Now - I needed those special skills I have been taught to use so many years ago in the temple of Asklepios.

Now - I needed to remember clearly and exactly how to use them.

Now - I needed concentration.

Because what I planned to do was dangerous for myself as well as for the Anatolian god. I planned to use my own divine powers to drag his spirit and his soul back into the land of the living and return it to his physical body and then to close and seal the opening to the Neverunder. This was not regular healing, this went far beyond that. This was ultra-dimensional magic, a hard and dangerous discipline very few gods even dared to touch. If I wasn't careful enough I could become stuck in that whirlpool of dark magic as well and also be sucked in and spit out somewhere where no one would ever find me again. And Kalian would lose his mother at an early age...

I trust you Ares - ward me!

Doctor Amarylliou had told about the connections between the spirit, body and soul and the yonder dimensions, those only our spirit could travel trough. He told about the adventures of the souls, the strange places there were to see for those who had the ability and the courage to go there. And he also warned about the risks. As long as the spiritual body remained in contact with the physical body there was no real risk, you could always return to the physical dimensions and the body. But if that connection got cut off one way or another you were in most cases death or equally lost.

Amarylliou had taken us students on our first soul trips, first all together, and then we had become trusted to go in smaller groups and finally one by one. When we became more skilled he showed us how to enter the nearer soul dimensions, these which laid on this side of the Hades and which were more or less safe to travel in for everyone. But the Neverwhere dimensions weren't. So those we were told to avoid by all means. Mortals couldn't even enter them, gods could get lost in them.

Seating myself in the lotus position of grounding-concentration I began to focus on that spiraling soul and the point where it disappeared. I let my hands rest on my knees and then I reached down inside myself to find the kundalini force I knew was resting down there at the bottom of my spiritual belly cavity. A greenish glowing little salamander-looking thing was what I liked to think of it as. Because although it was a part of me it felt slightly alien. Alien in that sense that I barely knew it, hardly knew how it worked, what power it held, how it could be deployed. It was like a seldom-used muscle. A tendon never trained. And I hoped it wouldn't snap under the sudden pressure.

I reached - and plucked that salamander up and felt how it was stirring - and then slowly, at my tender command, began to slither up against my spine, touching each chakra on its way up, boosting it and making it spin slightly faster, both strengthening and grounding me. Ares had been talking about his red fighting spirit - this was something similar, although it was deployed to save lives, not taking them. In that sense we were different, Ares and I - and yet so alike, because we were both relentless fighters. None of us gave in even if the odds were bad.

I let the kundalini reach my crown chakra, the uppermost and most powerful of those energy centres. As it touched that part of my spiritual body I opened my Soul Gate in the middle of the crown chakra and let the spirit seep out. I was breathing unhurriedly now, felt my heart rate slow down to less than a beat per minute, my physical body was resting while my spiritual one was in full activity. Still I could feel how sweat formed tiny pearls on my forehead. Slowly the perception became different, it was as if the world was slowing down around me and became more detailed, more saturated and sharpened. I could see every strand of pelt on the hides covering Ikaton, I could see every pore in the man's haggard and insipid face and still I was able to close out sensory perceptions useless to me.

The trance held me in check while my spiritual force, for the time being coloured green just to differ it from Ikaton's blue, was reaching out and upwards to close in on that strange hole in space-time where Ikaton's essence was being sucked in. Slowly I drifted nearer; this was the most dangerous part of the whole process. I had to go as near as possible without slipping down in the hole myself, because then no one would be able to save neither me nor Ikaton.

Concentration - slowly slowly - nearer nearer. I used my third eye now and zoomed in as much as possible. Mentally closing in on the torn parts of reality. There I spotted jagged edges in the now-room, and from them scarlet gleaming cracks were spreading as if reality was dry mud beneath a baking sun. The edges were lethal-looking, like teeth of a predator - and at the same time oddly beckoning, as if they were tempting me, urging me to draw nearer. To check for myself what laid beyond. Adventures, endless possibilities, endless power of the kind that once had boosted Zeus. I could become - if I went there - almighty...

No! That was just an illusion. A trick. A fata morgana trying to fool my brain. I forced myself to not look at those edges and instead closing in on Ikaton's own disappearing energies. This close up they looked like a snaking three dimensional river flow. Watery and luminescent, cold and hot at the same time and glittering with thousands and thousands of little sparkles, like a summer brook reflecting the sun. And there was that sound, that moaning, tingling, jangling as if thousands and thousands of silver bells were chiming. The pain! I could nearly perceive it myself; felt it creeping down my spine and radiate out on my body, chilling it. And as a strange counterpoint a deep rumbling reverberation was coming from the yonder dimensions, almost like an enormous waterfall.

I forced those impressions away and let my own, green tendrils of energy wind themselves around the blue one of Ikaton. This was yet another precarious part, if I didn't do it well enough I could either snap my energies, and it would injure me badly or I could start becoming pulled down too together with the Anatolian god and I would have to disengage. And then I wasn't sure I would get a second chance. Therefore I concentrated solely on my green energy and Ikaton's blue, disregarding everything else. Finally I tied my green tendrils tight and hard around that blue stream like ribbons around a ponytail. When that was done I began to pull, to force Ikaton's spirit to stop being dragged into the hole to Neverunder.

First the pull on his spirit was hard, unrelenting. Then I began to perceive a slight release, as if my pulling was actually making a difference. But the change was so faint, so weak that I was far from sure it would be enough.


	13. Remedy

**Remedy**

I lost almost all perception of time; it felt like I had been pulling at that spiritual thread for hours - days - perhaps even weeks, when the alien undercurrent suddenly started to yield. When that happened my own feeling of control started to return slowly and at the same time Ikaton's thread of life begun to snake itself back again, out of the hole, inch by inch. Or whatever it was, I had no clue about how to measure these things. Still I knew I was - winning this. But it was far too early to triumph. Ares had taught me that, told about the importance of not celebrating until the last enemy fortress was taken. Because there might still be surprises lurking out there, concealed secret weapons.

Yet this could be done. I steadied myself and tightened my pull at the thread and began to really haul it in. As the time went by I managed to pull the energies of Ikaton back into this world. Finally, when the last strand passed through the hole, it collapsed with a frightening flash of light which was so strong that I was convinced that it was seen all over the city of Rhembosia. I almost passed out as my body absorbed a large amount of those energies. But most of the force went inside of Ikaton, who was spasming in his bed, screaming out loud in pain. His eye-balls seemed to boil in their holes, his cheek clamped and his hair went static and started to point in all directions. And worse of all, during a short moment my patient went almost completely transparent and I could see the skull and bones inside of him.

Now I could hear the others around me again:  
"She's killing him!" Ikaton's daughter Liko was yelling.  
"No, she knows what she's doing!" I heard Ares' deep voice.

Once again I forced those perceptions away from me. I was far from done with Ikaton yet. Now I was feeling that heat all over myself, it felt as if I was smoldering on the inside, my ichor boiling and my forehead and neck seemed awfully hot. I guess this was similar to how mortals felt when they had a fever caused by a viral infection. I had cured several of these in my days, but never experienced the discomfort myself since a divine body never let any viral take foothold. Nevertheless my own body temperature would have to be dealt with or I wouldn't be able to finish this well. I reached out for the water I could sense nearby, and some of it appeared as an orb close to my brow. I brought that one down to my mouth and swallowed it. Then I brought up a next and a next and drank those two too and finally I smashed the third against my face, letting the blessed chill run down my features, cooling them. Finally I grabbed an even larger ball, almost emptying the large amphora it came from. That ball I launched over Ikaton and smashed it so I soaked both him and the bed in water. Thus his body temperature dropped considerable.

After that I went on with the tedious work of curing my patient. I pushed the final tendrils of spirit inside his body and ordered it to heal, using my own energies to help it along. At the same time I winded up my own energy thread and collected it trough my crown chakra and down into my own body until it once again came to rest in the spiritual cavity resembling the belly behind the root chakra. Now I was restored. I was also able to help the Anatolian heal.

Working myself inside and out I stopped the decaying process of his body and woke up dormant cells in the marrow, forced them to split and to renew. There were also cells in the brain and in the other internal organs which were in bad shape and needed to be worked on. Because this body had suffered. Almost like a dying mortal. And it was imperative that I got it back to functioning again or it would take a long time until Ikaton would be back to his former self. He was in a lot of pain now but that couldn't be helped. I had to heal him and I had to help his own healing processes to start as well.

At the same time I started to do some crucial research, to find out what really had happened, what or who had started this wicked magic. My first suspect was Ikaton's power hungry granddaughter Chizay. Probing gentle I searched into the mind of Ikaton, seeing all kinds of interaction within his Pantheon, including what had first started this double war against the Hellas Commonwealth.

¨*o¨o*¨

_"Which part of 'no' is it you do not understand?" Ikaton was facing his two sons who were standing opposite of him in the Grand Sitting Room. The shorter and less bulky who was Telkor was looking down on the patterns of the carpet but Taniroth was boldly facing his pantheon head, replying:__  
"We don't understand any part of it, father. To be true there's no reason in your arguments. The Western Lands belong to US. Not the bloody Greeks. I say – and Telkor says as well, even if he's surprisingly silent here today – that we take those parts back. They should be Anatolian; they should abide by Rhembosia, not Athens."  
"Taniroth", Ikaton began "Whatever you might think about these lands, this is how it is these days. The Greeks have been reaching out both to the east and to the west of their mainland, their commonwealth is stretching widely now and…"  
"We ought to stop them!"  
"Taniroth let me finish. My patience is wearing thin. We've been having this discussion before, bringing in your little brother does not change anything. We can not beat the Greeks. Their armies are too well numerous and well trained. And their gods are far more powerful than any of us."_

_"Whom?" Taniroth scorned. "Not Ares. He's just a blood thirsty maniac. He charges ahead and listens not to reason. He knows next to nothing about strategy and tactics. Only thing he delights in is to slaughter and maim. He doesn't even care whom he fights for or if his cause is just or not. Trust me; he is a madman but not a serious threat to any of us."  
"Mayhap but if they send Athena against us we can kiss ourselves good night. She's some kind of military genius and she has marched off against way larger armies in her days and annihilated them to the very last man."  
"And our intelligence says she's off in the west chasing down Visigoths and Carhageans. She won't bother with us. They'll have to send Ares. And we'll destroy him."  
"No you will not."  
"Why?"  
"I forbid you!"  
"And if I don't care?"  
"Go there then. And suffer the losses! But don't come to me and wine when the Greeks wipe your asses!"_

So that was what happened. Taniroth and Telkor had invaded the Eastern Hellas countries more or less against their father's will, and they had faced Ares and lost against him, even if they had managed to grab some lands in the south as a consolidation price. Lands the Greeks had now taken back. Now Ares had chased them off all of the Hellas territory, and he had taken even more of the Anatolian land to prove his point. In the first war he had killed Telkor as well. That has not been part of the original plan but I got to see how it had played out, since Ikaton had seen the event trough a scrying bowl.

_The sixteen warriors were about two days ride from the camp when they finally encountered the ones they were looking for. Two dark warriors – and Ares himself, just as the informer had let them know. Ares was riding with his second in command Achilles and a third man which name the Anatolians didn't know. But Achilles' death would be a nice bonus, Telkor figured as he looked down upon the three riders on the __valley path. Achilles was almost as dangerous and feared as the god Ares himself and getting both of these in a surprise ambush would be a real boost for the Anatolian army. Probably this would be just what they needed. This would be the event to turn the luck for the Anatolians. With no Ares to lead them the Greeks would be cast down in despair and the Anatolians could retrieve their lost territories and even take what they originally planned to take. All they had to do was slit the troth of that monster of a war god the Greeks had sent against them. Him and that Achilles as well._

_Telkor met the looks of his fellow god Remor and the latter nodded slightly and smiled with malice. He would love to take Achilles while Telkor took Ares. The others would just follow to make sure the Greeks became distracted enough to not be able to neither beat their Anatolian enemies nor escape from the trap. And the third Greek would be taken down too of course. Telkor gave the hand sign for attack and the next moment sixteen horses were thundering down the grass clad slope. _

_Ares looked up only a second after the first noise and pulled his sword from the scabbard on his back. Achilles and the third man did the same, and they readied themselves for the attack which came upon them rapidly. _

I was biting mental knuckles with mental teeth as I watched my beloved and his two comrades take on the seemingly superior force. Because even if I knew the outcome, since Ares was standing at attention less than ten feet from me, this sure looked like the three of them were doomed. And sure the unknown mortal warrior was soon outmanned and fell with a sword in his guts.

_Ares and Achilles on the other hand were swiftly cutting their enemies down, both of them working as if they had eyes in their back as well, and as if they were able to make out the enemies' moves before they even made them. Ares and Achilles were stronger, faster and impossible to trick. And soon there were just four fighters facing each other on the stony path. Remor was bleeding from a large gash in the shoulder and he looked quite a bit paler than before. There was a short impasse while the four seemed to gauge their opponents. Then Ares let up a war cry and attacked Telkor, who actually fell back in surprise, and was a bit too late in raising his sword. So Ares injured him as well. At the same time Achilles engaged Remor and he was fighting almost as well as Ares. I knew how Ares fought but I became really impressed with Achilles. He sure was a worthy fighter, almost as good as any war god. Still Remo__r was holding his ground against the Greek and as Ares injured Telkor twice more and forced him to back, Remor and Achilles fought an almost even battle. _

_Then Ares and Telkor came up close, their blades locked. The next second Telkor fell forward and thumbed off his horse, blood sprouting out of a wound in the belly. Ares had stabbed him with an Adamantine dagger. And as Telkor fell Ares was over him in a heartbeat and finished him off with a short sword made out of the same metal. _

_Now Remor turned his horse and fled like the wind. But Ares was faster. He grabbed bow and quiver from the saddle and in a second I saw the tip of the arrow he chose. Adamantine as well. Within a heart beat my beloved aimed and shot, from an angle that looked impossible to produce a hit. But it wasn't. Not for Ares. The deadly arrow flew faster and further than any arrow shot by a mortal man and it soon buried itself in the back of Remor who fell from his horse and rolled around in the dust among the cacti. Then he ended his days on the Anan planes as soon as Ares was next to him with his lethal blade. _

And then I finally saw the most scary of it all – what had really happened to Ikaton. Why he was dying now…

¨*o¨o*¨

The dawn was almost breaking when I finally made the last adjustment to Ikaton's body and made sure he would receive a much needed sleep, the first of that kind in almost a week. The Anatolian god had been victimized for about seven days, and during almost all that time he had existed in a kind of trance state, somewhere between being awake and sleeping and not really resting. But now he would be sleeping again. Dreaming. Healing. Both body and soul.

Finally I let go, slumping almost into fetal position on top of the bed, feeling drawn and worn, as if it was my energies which had been sucked away. Which they almost had, even if it had been my own doing.

In an instant my beloved was there and held me in his strong arms. Caressing me and comforting me. Feeding me of his own waste, Olympian energies. At the same time his main attention was on the Anatolian women in the room:  
"Narinda is done with her work now." he informed. "Your Ikaton is asleep; when he wakes up he will be weak but well. Give him a lot to eat and take care of him! Now the three of us will leave this place as agreed."

At those words Chizay let out a husky laughter:  
"Did you really think we would let you leave? When we have you all here inside our pantheon so neatly collected. Then you are even more stupid than I thought, Ares of the Greeks." Then she uttered a kind of order in her own language and once more we found us selves surrounded by silvery Semlis. This was starting to feel quite repetitive now. Ares gave me one last energy boost as he lifted me out of the large bed of Ikaton and guided me in the direction of my frightened friend:  
"Guard Xena!" he ordered. Once again he held his big sword in his hand.

And as my love let out a horrid war cry and engaged the Semlis I pulled Xena behind my back, because not even Ares could hinder some of the Semlis to come around him and attack the two of us. In response I grabbed one of those burners and began to use it as a tall war club, swinging it against the advancing Semlis, echoing Ares' war cry. My ferocious motions made the burning coal fly across the room and where it landed upon combustible material little fires started. Those coals which landed on the Semlis burned them as well, with a hissing, smoking effect and emitting strange, foul smelling smoke. The burned beings backed off, tried to ward themselves as parts of them melted by the heat. The other Semlis who drew near were taking hits from my makeshift weapon and flew across the room. I had really no idea about how to fight then, I was acting upon pure instinct and some kind of recollection of what I had seen Ares doing so far.

Somewhere I could hear Liko scream:  
"Stop this now Chizay, make your beasts stop! You're mad! You promised to let the healer and her escort go!" But her niece was not listening; she was still calling in more Semlis to replace those incapacitated. More Semlis to be butchered by Ares' fast-swinging sword and battle axe. (Where he had got the latter I had no clue, probably grabbed it trough the dimensions from somewhere.) And in the middle of the pandemonium Ikaton was still sound asleep, lulled by those powerful enzymes I had let loose in his brain. He would not wake up until due time no matter what went on around him.

I kept on swinging my iron staff, hitting Semli after Semli and noticed with a fraction of my mind that parts of Ikaton's bed was on fire, while most of it still was too wet to burn after my water exercises. I also understood that we needed to get Xena out of here before she became hurt by all the smoke; she was already coughing hard, holding a part of her dress to her mouth.

Suddenly I saw Ares jump up high in the air where he somersaulted over the lion part of the Semlis bound to attack him. Instead they crashed into each other, creating a total disorder. Now Ares used his axe to chop off the large chandelier which hung from the ceiling. I hadn't noticed that one until now, probably because it was not being used. As the lamp fell it crashed down right in the middle of the melee of Semlis, rendering most of them useless or trapped beneath the heavy metal structure. At the same time Ares landed on his feet behind Chizay and now he had somehow traded his ax and blade for a small but lethal dagger, shining with blue Adamantine. He soon held that dagger pressed against the troth of Chizay, while he had grabbed her raven hair with his left hand, pulling her body backwards in an arching, painful-looking pose.

I felt my troth contract. Adamantine! The god-killing metal. I should have known Ares had brought at least one weapon like that, still it scared me. That matter was almost as dangerous as the magic I had seen at work today. One slide, combined with the right kind of soul-manipulation and you could send a god down under faster than it took to kill a mortal the same way.

"Liko! Call off the beasts! Now!" the war god bellowed. And there was no mistaking the order in his harsh voice. Still, he didn't look maddened. Far from it, he was ice cold and so totally in control I could hardly believe it, as he held Chizay in an iron grip. And Liko obeyed out of fear mixed with a kind of relief. She gave an order and those Semlis still standing froze as if they had turned into the silver statues they so resembled. The next second they were all gone, as if they had never existed. Even those broken/injured disappeared in a blink of an eye.  
"Narinda! Xena! Over here, quick. We're out of here!" Ares went on. I was not late to obey, Xena thought was nauseous from the smoke and I had to carry her in my arms over to Ares, something I was able to do because of the power Ares had fed me physical strenght was after all not a trait of mine. At the same time Xena's medic bag and other stuff appeared in my arms as well. Ares had even bothered to remember their location and brought them to us.

That moment the fires around us stopped. That too was Ares' doing. And as I walked up next to him with the coughing Xena in my arms Ares gave one last order to Liko:  
"Don't try to follow us because then Chizay dies. And I know that no matter how much you hate her you fear Damak even more. And he is hers and will not hesitate to harm you if you let anything happen to his allied."  
"Smart play" I mumbled under my breath and Ares gave me a quick glance. Then he turned and started walking out of the room. Ares did obviously judge the situation safe enough to not having to back away from Liko. And I couldn't help directing two last sentences towards Ikaton's daughter:  
"I hate saying this, but you guys suck at hospitality and common sense. Had you just asked I would have come and help your Ikaton in an instance and you'd spared all of us all this trouble."

After that we exited the chamber of Ikaton and heavy doors banged shut behind us. Ares lead the way across the hallway and up to a window which closed blinds he smashed with but a nod of his head. Then we jumped out of the pink palace, me with Xena in my arms and him holding Chizay with that Adamantine blade still pressed against her troth. And all her stupid bravery seemed to have seeped away like wine from a broken amphora, she was trembling in the grip of Ares and her eyes were wide, her face gray as ash.

We took in the air fast and headed westwards, the sky turning orange behind our backs, heralding the rising sun. Hardly more than a day and a night had passed since I had had my nightmare about Xena. It almost seemed hard to believe. I cast a glance over my shoulder and down at the palace of the Anatolian gods. Smoke was still billowing forth from the window we had broken; otherwise nothing could be seen of what had taken place down there, the divine island was so utterly calm and tranquil in the early morning light it almost looked like a fantasy painting.

We didn't stop until we had left Rhembosia way behind, and during that trip no one said anything. Xena had been coughing for a while until I had healed her damaged lungs and then she had fallen asleep in my arms, my poor friend being exhausted after all ordeals she had been put through.  
"It's time" Ares said then and begun to descend, and I followed him.  
"For what?"  
"Our visitor."  
"Whom?"

I had hardly uttered the question before I spotted him. A spirit standing on the ground, dressed in a long, hooded cloak. Ares landed in front of the spirit with the trembling Chizay still in an iron grip, although he seemed to have sheeted that dagger now. I landed next to the god of war, gently putting the sleeping Xena down on the dry grass of the Anan prairie, covering her with my cloak.

At the same time Ares had greeted the spirit and in turn the shorter man folded back his hood. As Ares called him by name I found I couldn't recognize him for the man in the bed at all. Ikaton. Pantheon head of the Anatolians. This spiritual rendering showed a tall, strong man - although he was a far cry from Ares' size. After all Ikaton was no warrior, he looked more like a scholar and an athlete, with his hair in a short cut and slicked backwards, showing his comely face.

Upon recognizing Ikaton I saw how Chizay drew in breath, her features showing consternation, confusion - and alarm. Understandable, she seemed to dread her pantheon head even more than she had feared Ares. Still she said nothing, she was probably too petrified.

A few mandatory politenesses were exchanged then Ares said:  
"I'll hand her over. I'll put her to sleep here where you can watch over her and then you better make sure she returns to your island." The next thing I saw Chizay's knees give way and she slumped down in the grass next to Xena, the fear, hatred and confusion in her face suddenly disappearing. And in the calmness of sleep the goddess was almost beautiful, something I had failed to see until now.

"She will want to revenge her father and I will want to revenge my sons, you must understand that, Ares." Ikaton replied. "Still" now he turned towards me. "If it wasn't for her I would be dead now. No, more than that. I wouldn't even be able to find the lands your associate Hades controls. Narinda, you came to me and did the impossible. I knew nothing until almost the very last part of the healing you gave me. I was so badly off I didn't even comprehend I was dying. My mind was already walking those strange lands down under and I was more than terrified. No one should ever have to experience that. I owe you for that remedy. So even if you are my enemies I will refrain from striking out - and not only because I am not able to do so at the very moment."

"Do not forget, Ikaton" Ares replied "That your sons Taniroth and Telkor acted on their own when they attacked Greece. You could have chosen to stop them and spared me the trouble. And they would have been alive by now."  
"I know" Ikaton bowed his head. Even though he as a spirit was colourless - or rather slightly blue-green - and kind of transparent - I could see that his cheeks were burning with shame. "Still a father loves his sons. You, who are a father too, must know that as well, Ares. Now I have only one more - Saion. And only the all seeing faithes know where he dwells these days."  
"There's more you need to know" Ares said and turned to me: "Tell him, Narinda! Tell him who brought down these dark forces upon him!"

My eyes widened. Ares knew! How could he...  
"The magic - which almost killed you" I begun, looking at the sprite form of Ikaton. "That magic was deployed by your son Taniroth."  
"What!" Ikaton bellowed, his control wavered obviously, and so did his form which started to flicker as if it was about to dissolve. "What are you saying, woman?"  
"It is the truth, Ikaton." I detested the way he had called me 'woman' and I felt that he lacked in gratitude, after all I had almost risked my own life healing him. With a sudden feel of harshness I went on:  
"Taniroth feared that you would try to harm him for his disobedience after he had attacked the Hellas commonwealth. So he bound you to himself by magic, making sure that in case anything would happen to him it would affect you too. Little did he know that it would not be your hand slapping him but Ares who finished him off."

"That's... preposterous" was the only thing Ikaton could say.  
"Still it is true" Ares replied. "Narinda saw it when she searched the dimensions for the last parts of your remedy. And I saw it too because she was almost transmitting it so shocking did it feel to her. You know in our part of the world we don't do this to our kin." The last thing was not said entirely without sniding.

Ikaton remained silent for a while, then he spoke again:  
"I do have mixed feelings for you, Greeks. You kill with one hand and heal with another. What is a man supposed to believe."  
"Believe me when I say this then!" I looked with challenge in my eyes at the spirit. "I am no warrior like Ares or your sons. I am a medic and a healer. My enemies are neither Anatolians nor Greek. They are virus, bacteria and injuries. As well as magically inducted maladies like what you suffered from. And them I fight wherever I encounter them. The last one I healed before I left the hospital upon the Greek arrival was actually an Anatolian. A veteran who had gotten an arrow trough his cheek."

When Ikaton failed to reply Ares said:  
"We're leaving now. Stay here with your granddaughter if you so desire. Then head my caveat and make sure that no more of your family come against the Greeks again. Because then you're going to lose them too."


	14. My honorable foe

**My honorable foe**

About ten minutes later we were back home again. 'Home' as in the now nearly abandoned headquarters of the Greeks in Darangorlad. I put the still sleeping Xena to bed in an empty room next to Ares' and my suite and Ares went to find Kalian. When I caught up with them Kalian was pouting because we hadn't let him come with us to Rhembosia.  
"You deserve all love and respect, little Hero" Ares tried. "But you are still a tad too young to follow us on a mission like this. We had to save Xena and we had to do it fast or those bad guys who had caught her would've hurt her really bad. And you wouldn't want that to happen, right?"

"No..." Kalian was facing his father with a suspicious look in his dark eyes as he thought it over. He was certain that Ares was outsmarting him, yet he could not grasp how, although I could almost hear how his brain was at work here. Then he turned to look at me as I had finished the struggle with getting off my sweaty, torn and dirty tunic:  
"Mother, would you have let me come?"  
"No, dearest" I replied as I walked over and gave him a hard hug.  
"Why?"  
"Because I love you too much to let any harm befall upon you. And those thugs we went up against would most definitely have tried to hurt you, and I could not let that happen. "

Kalian though that over for a while, then he asked:  
"Where is Xena now?"  
"Asleep" I told him. "She was very tired after everything that had happened to her within less than two days. So I made a bed for her in one of the rooms up here."  
"Does it mean she's staying with us now?" Kalian beamed up.  
"Yes, she does, but I don't know for how long. She has after all her own home and her own life and no doubt she would want to return to that when she has rested a bit."

Then Kalian wriggled out of my grip and told us:  
"Sthen showed me some really bad moves. So now I can knock you out, dad!"  
"Then give it to me!" Ares smiled and Kalian begun to kick and hit at the arm Ares used to block himself with, and in the end the father grabbed his son around the waist and heaved him up in the air, threw him over his brawny shoulder and started to tickle him.  
"Noo!" Kalian called out. "That's cheating. You're not allowed to cheat."  
"Yes, in war and love cheating is always allowed" Ares laughed.

Once again I got tears of joy in my eyes upon seeing these two play around. They made me so proud and happy and filled to the brim with love that my heart was melting in a pool of warm, fuzzy bubbles and I felt like the luckiest little lass around.

O0O0O

The next moment there was a firm knock on the doorframe and Achilles entered together with Xantippa and Ares turned, sat down Kalian and put on his business face:  
"Anything to report?" he asked the dark warriors.  
"Not really" Ares' second in command said as he removed his red-crested helmet and put it under his arm. Xantippa did the same thing, revealing her pinned-up dark-blond hair, as well as giving Ares a salute. She was standing slightly behind her superior and in full attention while Achilles seemed a bit more relaxed.

"There was a great deal of trouble down in the harbour. Lots of fighting. Not the usual bar brawls, but some rivaling gangs trying to settle some kind of disagreement. And eventually it became too much for the Bluecoats to handle so they came up to us and asked us to help them out with the situation. So I took some of the Darkies with me down and cooled down those firebrands, helped with pulling them off the streets and making the area a bit safer again. Then Bremusa got a rather bad tight wound. You might want to have a look at it, Narinda." Achilles turned to me.  
"I'll do that as soon as possible" I promised.  
"We learned some interesting things too," Achilles went on, "seems that the Darangorladians have quite a problem with organized crime and gangs offering 'protection'."  
"The usual," Ares remarked. "Happens all the time you take a city. After a while the generally undermanned police comes up to you and ask for help with things they can't handle. This shows that we have to get away from here soon, or we'll end up as a more or less present law-upholding militia which the Darangorladians begin to depend on and suddenly can't do without. And we'll never be able to withdraw. We'll become a permanent solution and in the end the line between occupation and annihilation becomes indistinguishable."

"With all due respect, Ares, why is that so bad?" Xantippa asked. "I used to be a cop before I joined the army. I can clearly tell that these people need help. For instance the area around Darangorlad is almost lawless these days, with marauding gang of criminals terrorizing the farmers."  
"Xantippa, that is none of our business. Darangorlad is not part of the Hellas Commonwealth, it's a neutral city-state and as such shall it be respected. We came here to kick out the Anatolians. And now that duty is done, and we Helenians have nothing more to do here."  
"But we had to help them, Ares! We couldn't just stand and watch while those hooligans tore the town apart."  
"I never said what you did was wrong, Xantippa," the war god replied. "I only said that we have to leave Darangorlad as soon as possible before we become relied upon by the locals. We're the Hellas army; we can't be police in a non-Hellenic nation. Because then we might become accused of the very thing we warred against the Anatolians for - invading neutral, free of alliance countries."

Gee! I thought. War was so much more complicated than I had ever expected. Before ending up with Ares I had just thought it a game of kill and be killed and that the one with the biggest siege-machines became the winner. But just as Ares' hand to hand combats had turned out an intricate dance, the whole concept of war was multi-leveled and more complex than any board game. Ares had joked once that war was too complicated to hand over to the generals, and he sure was right about that.

The next thing I found myself regarding Achilles. The Dark Warrior was almost as tall and brawny as Ares himself and his chiseled face held a brutal intelligence, still those gray-blue eyes did not lack humour. I was not sure I was able to interpret the man who was Ares' second in command. Not only was it his rank, there was something more that set Achilles apart from his colleagues. Something that made him different, perhaps a peg or two above the rest. And much more alike Ares than anyone else. But what was it really that made him different? I decided to find out later. Other, more urgent things were on my mind right now.

0O0O0

"Ares - we need to talk" I said as we finally got some moments for ourselves. We had been starving upon our return, something I hadn't realized until we set foot in the headquarter again and the adrenaline rush wore off. But Ares had been thinking ahead as usually, so there had been a large meal waiting for us when we arrived. Now we had cleared off almost everything on the plates and Kalian had gone into his room to finish 'his invention' whatever that could be. At this moment the two of us were sitting alone by the table, Ares holding a cup in his hand, swirling around what little watered wine was left.  
"Yes?" His brown eyes got curious.  
"About what I did in Rhembosia. Curing Ikaton."  
"Yes, that was impressive, dearest."  
"You're not - mad at me?"  
"What for?"  
"For helping your enemies? For healing the man who's sons - were out to take your life. And the lives of a lot of other Greeks' too?"

"Didi no!" He put his cup down and laid a large hand over mine. "Of course not, how could I be mad at you? No, I'm proud of you. You went in there to help your friend. Then you followed the calling of yours, you did what a medic has to do. Cure and help. And you did it well. I had been more angered if you had chickened out, not daring to go after Xena. Chaos knows, I've met many of that kind, gods as well as mortals. At the same time I guess I would have understood it too, because those Anatolian gods are dangerous."

"Save for their silver automatons and Chizay's venous tongue they didn't appear that impressive." I replied. "After all you more or less cut trough those Semlis as if they were grass."  
"Well, the Anatolians are more or less crazy, and that's what makes them so dangerous. They're unpredictable. You never know what they are going to do next. The only thing you can be certain of is that they at one moment or the next will aim to stab you in the back. Perhaps they'll come here again as soon as we leave. Or perhaps they are done with the west now and turn their attention eastwards, trying to revenge those sons who fell against Baal and possibly Marduk. And finally - there's still one unknown factor."  
"What?"  
"Make that a 'who'. Saion. The last son. I'll bet my best sword that if he's not going to get himself killed somewhere else, or already has; he'll be coming for me one day, with his full intent on revenge. And then I'll have to fight him too."

"Is that so bad?" I couldn't help asking, remembering how Ares almost had seemed to enjoy himself dueling Taniroth. Ares huffed.  
"Perhaps it feels a bit unnecessary. A good duel is refreshing and invigorant, and much more challenging than to fight dumb things like the Semlis. At the same time a taken life is a taken life, especially if it's divine. Those will never come back again. And there'll always be someone missing them, crying over them. But that's my destiny, to keep these punks at bay, to stop them from coming against all the people, gods as well as mortals, I have sworn to defend."

"My love..." I held on to his hand, caressing it, felt the warm texture against my palm. "What will you teach Kalian? Will he become a war god too?"  
"He has it in him. More than he has healing, even if there are turquoise parts in his aura too. But mostly it is red. Just like mine. So I guess he will be following my path in life."  
"Yes your aura is red, Ares. I have never seen anything so red before. It's almost as if you're war yourself."  
"That's what they say. Some mortals - they just call me 'War'"  
"But there's white too."  
"Weather. After my father. Yet both of them - Hera and Zeus - had enough red in them to create me."

"Strange. I never thought of Hera as a warrior."  
"Yes, very few have seen my mother fight. She's more into civilization building now, following those yellow energies which burn so strong within her. But she did fight the Titans. Almost as vicious and merciless as father. And I guess I, who became their first child together, got saturated by all those warriors' emotions which were still lingering in their spirits when they conceived me. At the same time Hera's grandfather Holtos was apparently as red as I, not that it helped him when the Titans came. Anyhow, I like to think that there's more to my red. I like to picture myself as a lover as well as a fighter. Someone who cares. Someone who's there..."  
"Hush, darling. To me you're Love. More than anything else. To me you're... "

I stopped there, words were not enough. Words were very much unneeded at the same time. There were other means to express what I wanted to say. So instead I grabbed his neck with my left hand and pulled his head towards mine until our lips were able to meet. Then I kissed him, I tasted his soft lips with mine, slid my tongue between them, over his hard teeth to enter the cavity where his tongue dwelt. It came to great me, to meet me. So passionate, so fulfilling. In return I could hear Ares moan softly as he let go of my hand to be able to push the table slightly away, lift me from the chair and in one swift motion, place me in his lap instead. As easy as if I had weighted less than a feather. I continued to explore his oral cavity, while my hands threaded through his hair, undid his ponytail and let those silk strands flow between my fingers before I felt myself down his neck and beneath his tunic alongside his strong shoulders.

At that moment Ares let go of my mouth and instead kissed his way down my neck, nibbling along the way, making circles with the tip of his tongue. He knew all the secret places upon me where I was so much more sensitive than anywhere else. He knew them and he conquered them. After all he knew everything about conquest, being it love or war. He unbuttoned my tunic and let it fold open, while he let those sensitive lips trace themselves down to my nipples, stop there for a while, teasing around with tongue and teeth and making me almost sob before he travelled further down. To be able to reach he grasped my slender waist and lifted me in the air and I came to rest my cheek somewhere in his hair, dark strands tickling my nose. As I wrung myself beneath that sweet torture I could feel how hard he had become against my left tight. And I wanted him so much, so very very much.

"Can never, can never" I heard myself gasp as he began to kiss himself down my belly "can never ever get enough of you - Ares!"  
"I never ever want you to either, Didi" he mumbled against my skin before his tongue found the little pothole that was my bellybutton. Ares! Ares Ares Ares!

Strong arms lifting me up, the sofa was there and he slumped down with me on top of himself, lifting his hands over my buttocks, squeezing them lightly while tasting me again on the neck. At the same time I was battling and winning over his worn leather pants, opening them button by button, sliding them down his hips, liberating his enormous manhood. As I took him in my hand I heard him gasp for breath and whispering my name just as I had repeated his. As a reply I opened up for him, split my legs across his. Inviting him inside of me. Into these secret places which were from now on only meant for him to explore. My Ares...

My Ares, my exceptional hero, who set my world on fire, made it blaze and explode all around me as I gave myself fully and completely to him and his love. At that moment all the red in his aura was love and nothing else.

0O0O0

When we were done for the time being, spent and spoiled and I was resting on top of him, my arms and hands somewhere around his grand torso and my legs tangled with his, we suddenly heard laughter and titter from a few rooms away.  
"Hear that?" Ares turned his head.  
"Kalian. And Xena. She's awake. Let's go see..."  
"How they are doing" we said at the same time.  
"Was magnificent by the way" Ares said as he let himself out of my caves, I had almost forgotten he was still lingering inside.  
"Sure was, thank you beloved!"  
"Thank you honey pie."

0O0O0

"Was that - really not a nightmare?" Xena was looking from me to Ares and then back again. Then she pushed a hand trough her unkempt hair and let out a sigh. "By Zeus, I'm too old for this - and you immortals, you'll never understand how that feels, right?"  
"Trust me I did" I told her. "When I had cured Ikaton I was so tired I felt like I could lie down and not rise again for millennia."  
"And the ungrateful bastard insulted her in return." Ares groused.  
"Why did he say?"  
"He questioned my sincerity. Accused me of lying when I told him who had brought the disaster upon him."  
"He sure wanted it to be me who had been responsible for his misery." Ares said. "Although I know nothing about chaos magic and related things. That has never been my weapon of choice. I prefer to face my enemies eye to eye and battle them with arms I can carry in my hands. I almost regretted we helped him when he confronted us in spirit."

"Perhaps it was some kind of after-shock." Xena said. "Perhaps Ikaton understands later that what you guys did for him deserves gratitude."  
"Then you don't know him well," Ares said. "That man has never been able to admit defeat and has never been able to show any real thankfulness, neither to friends nor to foes."  
"Never mind, I did it mostly for you, Xena." I said.

"Why thank you, my friend" Xena said and took my hand. We had sat down in the courtyard outside the headquarter, in the shades of a large palm tree where it was still reasonable cold in spite of the midday heat. The sun was dancing with the wind and blowing leaves and making patterns over the wall, the stone bench and our features. Ares' hair, which was tied up again, looked almost bluish, like metal. And Xena, with the shadows and lines in her face appeared both worn and wizened. She folded her hands over her knees and then she looked at Ares with almost shy eyes.

"I should thank you too, God of War, for coming for me. I never was a fan of you, in fact you scared me and filled me with despise. But... You followed Narinda into the lion's den after little mortal me. You protected her - and me, when you might as well have chosen to stay outside, uncaring. Thus I thank you too, Ares, God of War. You might have been my foe for so many years, after all a cut-up leg is not easy to forget. It pains in the night and when the weather gets bad. But you're honorable Ares, something I never expected you to be. By the way, what happens now?"

"We're heading for Greece." I told, and glanced over at the end of the courtyard, where Kalian was practicing some of that weaponless martial art with Sthenephon. The latter was making his moves a bit slowly to make it possible for Kalian to get some hits and kicks in the right spots, still not lethargic enough to make it too easy. He sure was a good teacher that man, and I was not surprised that he had advanced in rank with Ares. But there was also something... I looked at the aura of the Dark Warrior, there was something awkward there, something not right. I had seen that anomaly before but I could not put my finger upon what it was. I let go and returned my attention to Ares and Xena.

"I will go with Ares to... "  
"To Olympos" Ares said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. And to him it probably was.  
"Wow!" Xena breathed out. "Wow - that's just so - wow."  
"I think so too" I couldn't help smiling. Then Xena reached out for my hands and took them:  
"While up there, please spare me a thought now and then. Don't forget little me!" In response I bent over and hugged her.  
"You know I never will, Xena darling!"

Then I heard Sthenephon cry out and Kalian yell with fear and especially the latter sent a flash of a chill through my spine and entire body. Kalian!

Then there was that voice again. Taniroth? No, this voice was not as deep; it was more of the husky kind, like someone who had got his troth injured along the path of life.  
"Ares!" it called out. "Ares of Greece, you filthy scum!"

And as three heads were turned towards those voices I saw something that made blood chill in my veins. Because there he was - not Taniroth, but his younger brother Saion. It was no mistaking those brute, chiseled features, no introductions needed. Beside him on the ground laid Sthenephon with an arrow in his back, blood seeping out in a pool on the ground. Yet that was far from the worst thing!

"Ares" Saion called out again. He was standing there with little Kalian in a steady grip, a knife against our son's exposed troth. And not just any knife, but a knife of Adamantine. The god-killing material. "Ares, watch this, and then you'll know just how it feels to lose a kin."

Kalian! No!


	15. Xena's decision

**Xena's decision**

"Ares" Saion called out. He was standing there with little Kalian in a steady grip, a knife against our son's exposed troth. And not just any knife, but a knife of Adamantine. The god-killing material. "Ares, watch this, and then you'll know just how it feels to lose a kin."

But Ares was faster than the light. The next moment Saion traded his bragging speech for a horrendous yell as he clasped his left eye, from where another knife was protruding, another Adamantine knife. And the chocked Anatolian let go of Kalian who came running up to me with a whimper.  
"Mommie, mommie," he was crying and I knelt to take him in his arms, caressing him hard, burying my face in his dark whirls of hair, to not show my state of chock. Behind me Xena was almost wailing out Zeus' name. But Ares went over to Saion and grabbed him by the arms with fists of steel, forcing the intruder to drop his knife and then to fall down on his knees in Ares' unrelenting grip. The God of War planted a knee right in the ribs of Saion, made something go 'snap' and had him lose his breath and start couching and belching.

"You're a sorry asshole if you think you could get away with something like that. Coming here and threatening my son, I should tear your head off and shit down your windpipe for that. Lucky for you I only removed your eye and a single-minded self like you don't really need two of them to look at the world anyway." Saion was retching but he was far from done with yet. He somehow managed to get his left arm free from Ares and used it to remove the knife in his eye and instead aim it at his adversary's tight.  
"Ares!" I called out, but my beloved had not failed to notice Saion's try. He grabbed the Anatolian around his wrist and forced him to let go of the knife and then he kicked it way out of reach.

After that he pulled the Anatolian's head backwards and leaned over him with a sneer upon his face:  
"You're such a sorry excuse for any kind of god, avenger or whatever you feel like calling yourself. But I pity your father or you'd be dead by now. So off with you and do never show your ugly face around here anymore. And - by the way, that eye won't generate. My control over Adamantine made sure of that."

Then Ares turned Saion around, lifted him up in the air and threw him - somewhere - helping along with a forceful kick in the butt. That was the last I saw of Saion, because Ares sent him trough the dimensions back to Rhembosia and the diminished pantheon of his father. It all had taken less than a minute. And I, who was still cuddling the crying Kalian, knew that there was something I had to do as well.

With my son in my arms I walked over to the fallen Dark Warrior and let go of Kalian with one arm, freeing a hand which I used to slide the arrow out of its wound, pushing aside tissue telekinetically as I did so, to not damaging it even more... Then I turned Sthenephon over and looked at his pale face. Ares came over and leaned over us.  
"He's not...?"  
"He's still alive, dear. Let me handle this."  
"Mommie, please save him." Kalian was pleading with a little voice. And I felt Xena behind me too.  
"He has lost a lot of blood" she said. "Nari, can you...?"  
"I can do this." I reached out with my hand over the wound; this was after all a piece of cake compared to Ikaton.

Carefully I knitted his tissues together again, and measured his blood loss. I would have to replace that too. In response to my treatment Stenephon's lids fluttered open, and then he was looking at me with curious chestnut eyes.  
"Goddess Narinda... Didn't I die? I saw Hermes' Highway down under. Charon was there with his ferry..."  
"No, you're alive and kicking, old pal!" Ares smiled. "Didi is performing her miracles again."

Sthenephon began to sit but I laid a hand upon his broad chest.  
"No, wait!"  
"What?"  
"He's okay now, isn't he?"  
"I feel fine, Narinda, I actually feel I can..."  
"I said wait!" I added steel to my voice, using my entire medic's authority. During my healing I had seen what was wrong with this soldier. The blood. He had leukemia. His cells had gone renegade upon him and he would have been dead in less than a year if I didn't take care of him.

Breathing in and concentrating I started to Heal. I had only cured leukemia once before, upon a young woman back in the first year after coming here to Darangorlad. I had worked with her for nearly half a day and it had almost taken all my strength away. I had been exhausted after that battle, and now I feared the same for this event. But something seemed to have happened back there in Rhembosia when I healed Ikaton. I had grown stronger, and become more able to concentrate and direct my energies down the right paths and into the right parts of both the physical and spiritual body, using the Earth energies surrounding me as leverage. Now it took me less than an hour to rid this man of his decease.

As I was finished Ares held out a cup with crystal clear water to me. He had learned what I needed after a deed like this, my kind beloved. I gulped it down and when I felt too weak to replace the water Ares did that for me too. He had squatted down to my left while Xena was to my right holding on to Kalian. And Sthenephon, who had understood to keep quiet up till now couldn't help asking:  
"Did that arrow really pierce me so bad?"  
"No, it was a rather clean shot, passed just on top of your lung, and severed some arteries which only took me minutes to heal. No, this was something entirely different. An infirmity which might have forced you across the Styx long before it really should've been due, my friend. And not a way for a soldier to go either. You should almost consider yourself lucky for that arrow, or I might not have noted that you were unwell.

0O0O0

"We call it The Cancer where I come from," Xena said and broke herself a bit more bread. "Means crayfish. Don't ask me why, it's just a scary name for a scary decease."  
"And it was killing Sthen?" Ares asked.  
"As sure as one of your blades" I replied. "Not as fast but cruel and harsh, the terminal part is often horrifying for those affected. Falling on a battlefield with a spear in your guts would seem like a bliss compared to that way to go."  
"And the call me cruel for bringing people at war" Ares huffed. Xena laughed in her usual husky way:  
"Don't give us that sorrowful look, God of War! One death does not excuse the other. Well in most cases not."

Kalian had been checking on Sthenephon who was resting in the able hands of Meliklea. Now our son came running back and stopped in front of his father, and looked upon him with the five year olds inscrutable and curious brown eyes while he grabbed the last of the cookies on the brass plate.  
"Dad?" he asked, "Why did you let that man go? The man with the knife? Why didn't you kill him?"  
"There was no need to. He was never able to harm you. "  
"Ares, he had Adamantine" I looked at my beloved while lifting Kalian up in my lap."I admit you were quick out there but..."  
"Yes, I know well it was Adamantine. But it takes more than just a metal to kill a god. You must know the right way to manipulate the matter so it affects the soul bindings and make them become cut off from the body. Saion did not know how to do that. Which he would have found out had he tried to use the knife against our little Hero. "

"You should have killed him anyway!" Kalian stated and wolfed up the cookie in one single bite.  
"Why?" Ares lifted a brow, almost smiling and Xena just looked surprised.  
"You'd look soft otherwise." Kalian stated with food in his mouth. "And a war god shan't be soft."  
"Kalian" Ares said. "There are times when hardness works best and other times when it's better to be a bit soft. Look here!"

Ares reached out and plucked an orange and an egg out of the food basket. Then he turned and dropped them both to the floor. And while the egg smashed against the tiles, yolk and white pouring out around the crushed shell, the orange rolled away until it came to rest against the yonder wall, gleaming colourfully in the sunlight.  
"Now what?" I asked, Kalian giggled and Xena rolled her eyes.  
"See that egg was hard," Ares said. "While the orange was soft. And see for yourself which fared best."  
"The Orange" Kalian giggled. "But... The egg was soft inside. What if you're hard all the way trough?"  
"Then you'll eventually become fragile" Ares replied. "You just ate the last cookie little Hero; otherwise I'd show how easily a fragile thing breaks. While hardness breaks softness bends - and lasts longer. I'll have to confess it took quite some time for me to grasp this concept too. I wanted to be hard all the way trough as a young man. And thus I broke several times. "

"What was the need to be soft with the Anatolians then?" Xena asked.  
"It's a bit complicated" Ares went on "But the message I sent by just removing Saion's eye instead of his soul was 'I'm not afraid of you enough to feel the need to kill you'. To his dad I told that I had no inclination to go on with further killings of his pantheon. After all Saion hadn't really done anything against me save for that vain threat against Kalian."

"So he couldn't have killed me?" Kalian asked his father. "Could he hurt me at all?"  
"With the Adamantine he could have injured you, made you pain and bleed a bit. But there's no way I'd let him do even that, dearest child."'  
"Steel can't hurt gods at all?" Xena asked and Ares shook his head. "Not at all. It doesn't even pierce. It just slides off the spiritual shielding."

"You're a lucky bunch" Xena sighed.  
"Yes, sometimes we are" the God of War replied. "But dying the way Ikaton would have died hadn't Narinda been there would've been much more painful than a hundred of deaths by that leukwhatsitsname, the crayfish decease. Not to mention that he would never reincarnate the way all mortals do eventually. His soul would be lost forever."  
"Why?" Kalian asked.  
"The Neverunder areas are waste like - like comparing the whole world to your pocket."  
"Ghee - wow - cool!" Kalian again of course.

"So I take it you could get lost down there," Xena pondered.  
"Yes" Ares replied. "I know of gods who went that way. And others who went after them to bring them back. No one ever saw any of those poor souls again. They're lost there forever, endlessly walking through the scariest and most desolate landscapes."  
"But how can you know what it's like? If no one have returned to tell?" Xena again.  
"Actually there's one who did. My father went down there by the end of the Titan wars. To save some gods who's powers could change the course of that war, give the Gods an upper hand. He's the only one who ever made it back, so grand are his powers. But he more or less refuses to talk about it. It must've scared even him. He also told us Olympians once that even if you should find some lost god or goddess out there somewhere, they are most likely to have gone mad in that place where no normal laws applies. Where even time doesn't run the way we know it."

"Yes, I experienced just a little fragment trough that hole when I saved Ikaton" I told. "It was absolutely terrifying. And at the same time almost - beckoning. Nauseous. I felt strangely attracted to it, yet today I know I will never want to see it again."  
"I know the feeling," said Ares. "It's the adrenaline rush upon facing real danger. Immortals seldom gets the chance to experience it, but those who have will never forget it. "

"Have you, dad?" Kalian wanted to know.  
"It has happened."  
"When!"

Then Ares started to tell a story about when he had gone up against a beast called Brenephon in his youth. That monstrous being had almost killed him but his sister Athena had come to his rescue and then Zeus had healed him - as well as giving him quite a lesson about knowing your enemy and not biting off more than you could chew.

0O0O0

"Xena" I asked later, when Ares had taken Kalian with him to practice with knifes. "Ares wondered... he said he could ask Apollo or Asklepios to find you a job in Greece, should you feel inclined to follow us."  
"You think - after all this...?"  
"Yes" I nodded. "When I'll be gone... I heard that both Dorek and Evora died. You'd be so lonely out here. So I thought..."  
"That's very kind of you" my friend said. "But I must - turn the offer down. I am needed here. If I leave too Darangorlad will be totally out of medical personnel. And I don't want that to happen."

0O0O0

"I sort of guessed she'd say that" I told Ares while toying with a lock of his hair. I was lying on top of him in the bed in the dark of the early night; we were spent by lovemaking and just resting in the presence of each other. Ares had his hands on my buttocks, squeezing them lightly and it felt so fine that I had hard to concentrate. "She's very aware of duty and tries to follow her calling no matter what. I hope she can find life here as rewarding as it ought to be. After all she's 60 now and she has perhaps 20 more years. Those should be good to her I think."  
"And you, Didi? You won't follow duty anywhere?"  
"I'd rather follow you, dear."  
"I love the sound of that!" he said and kissed me upon the tip of my nose.

"Ares?" I said after a little while of silence, "that knife stunt? What did you do to prevent his eye from healing?"  
"I cut off the vitality strains. It's a bit like how you work but the other way around. A skilled healer like yourself can probably fix him, but I doubt there are healers that good among the Anatolian gods. After all they failed to see even what was wrong with Ikaton."  
"Yeah I saw the strains snap, I didn't think it was possible."  
"Good training with Adamantine can make it happen. My sister Athena discovered the trick by pure luck by the way."

"How?"  
"She once visited a place called The Mimer Well. It's a volcanic hot well located by the far end of the Black Sea, not far from Ashramong. Its water is a very powerful tool for extreme farsight and Athena was going to look for some events way back in time. There's something with the acrid in the water that gives it certain strong magic abilities, especially when you mix it with divine ichor. Someone better than me at these things can probably explain how it works. So Athena carried a knife of Adamantine with her for drawing ichor from herself. Instead - well she had just got there when this god Odin arrives, looking for wisdom he said. And then he tried to rape my sister. But Athena was having nothing of it and planted her knife firmly in his right eye, twisting it in like six dimensions! Naturally the bloke fled head over heels and the last thing I heard he's still one eyed. "

"Oh, that's scary! Now I'm going to have nightmares!"  
"Didi, my dear healer, don't worry, I happen to know the perfect cure against nightmares." Then Ares started to nibble my ear and neck, and moved me so I came to lie right on top of him. At that moment I felt that he was becoming hard once again. He sure had a stamina that even other gods would envy!

Suffice to say I didn't have nightmares that night.


	16. Larger than life

**Larger than life**

It was unusual to wake up earlier than Ares. He was almost always up and around when I woke up. Either that or he woke me with kisses and cuddles, wanting to start the day with affection. But today it was the sun which woke me up and I found my love still sound asleep next to me in the bed. Rising on my left elbow I regarded him where he rested - convinced that very few people had actually seen Ares when he was sleeping. His parents of course, some lovers. Some men he might've shared tent with at the front. But Ares never wanted to be caught with his guard down so he was very aware with when and where he slept. Thus others never got to see the difference. How smooth and relaxed he had become in both body and aura, his face soft and devoid of the plethora of emotions always showing there during the hours of awakeness. He looked younger too - boyish. At that moment I really saw the resemblance between Kalian and his father. The same kind of cheek, chin, nose and well defined brows. It made it easy to guess what Kalian might look like in some fifteen years.

"You're so beautiful my love." I leaned over and kissed him lightly on his full lips, careful not to wake him up, after all I knew that he had stayed up late yesterday to make sure everything became in order for our journey to Greece. Instead I climbed over him and out of bed, went to the bathroom and then I exited from the suite and out in the large hall outside. The area was now more or less emptied now, there was just some leftover furniture and scrap still around - and a lot of dust worms becoming visible in the slanted sunlight of morning. Stretching like a cat I walked across the floor which felt a bit cold against my bare feet and up to a dirty window where I looked out without really expecting to see anything else than the street outside and perhaps some Greek warriors packing stuff.

But there it was - the strangest thing I'd ever laid my eyes upon. It looked like a cross between an enormous vehicle and an iron stove and with a large chimney on the top from where it came puffs of gray smoke. I had no idea at all what it was supposed to be. And what it was doing down in our street.  
"What the... Ares!" I sent out a mental call to my beloved and he was next to me in just a few moments.

"What do you make out of...?" I started but Ares laid his arms around my chest and said:  
"Hephaestos! And right on time too! It's me who overslept. Shouldn't have happened." Then he kissed me quickly on my cheek before he let go of me and turned around and went back to the room.  
"Hephaestos?" Ares brother? What was he doing here?  
"Wake up Kalian, I'd better go down and say hello to him!" Ares sped by swiftly, performing the kind of acrobatics only a man does who is trying to hurry away and put on his pants at the same time. I heard him curse as he banged into something in the hallway and then almost tumbling down the stairs. Giggling slightly and shaking my head I went to do as he said. He was so head over heels sometimes, my beloved. And, by the sound of it, almost literally too this time!

That was something Kalian hadn't inherited from his dad at least. Our son was more thoughtful and modest in his activity. He was also tired in the mornings just like I. While Ares was all rise and shine, almost before the sun, and full with plans for the day, I was usually not myself before I had got the chance to splash some cold water in my face and get a least a glass of fruit juice to drink. Kalian was the same. When I woke him up now he was so very reluctant to rise, placing the pillow over his head and making sounds of complaint.  
"Honey, come on, today is the day we're leaving. And our ride is already here."  
"Can't we wait another day? I wanna sleep!" my son whined.  
"Wasn't it you who said it was beginning to become boring here?" I asked and tried to remove that pillow.

We struggled a bit and then Kalian let go.  
"Are we going to Greece now? To Olympos?" He asked and pushed his knuckles towards his eyes, rubbing them ungentle and making a face as if he was not really ready to begin with the day.  
"Yes, but we're stopping in Salenda first.  
"That's where I'm coming from, right? Where you met dad? And Xena?"  
"True! Now, come on, we don't want to keep Hephaestos waiting, and I'm sure you want to see his 'larger-than-life' vehicle!"

0O0O0O

"Are we going to ride in that" I bent my head back, regarding the large monster almost blocking the whole street, and which had attracted a lot of spectators.  
"Sure!" the bulky man called from above. Hephaestos, the divine inventor and manufacturer - and younger brother of Ares as well. Tales held him for ugly, but I could not make out more than a huge, somewhat stout form, dressed in heavy and well worn, brown leather from top to toe in spite of the warmth of the day. "And you must be Didi and Kalian. Ares told me about you, the beautiful healer goddess! You got everything packed? Set, steady and ready to go?"  
"Yes, we took care of it yesterday" I replied.  
"Then all aboard the Mileburner!" Hephaestos called out and saluted with one large, gloved hand.

"He's got a strange way of talking" Kalian pointed out.  
"That's probably because he's from Greece." was the only reply I could think of. At the same time the dark warriors were milling all about us, carrying onboard the last of the packing. There were Agakar and Amanos, trying to convince a few horses that it was safe to step inside the large compartment and there was Takakis and Sthenephon carrying wooden boxes with arms in. Dovan and Ares were discussing how to strap down certain goods the best way and Achilles came out carrying flags and banners, not only Greek but conquered Anatolian as well. And Meliklea came up to me and laid a hand on my arm:  
"Narinda?" she asked. "Can you come help Astymache, she fell and I think she might have sprained an ankle?"

That particular healing required only five minutes of my time and meanwhile the others were almost set. But in the last moment before we were going to take off I heard someone calling behind me. There were Xena and another colleague of mine, Lavian. Xena ran up to me and gave me a hard hug, her voice choking upon tears.  
"Good luck now Nari dearest and take care of yourself!" I also felt my eyes sting when I returned the affection. Then I hugged Lavian too, and the old herb doctor held out a package to me:  
"Just a little something to remember us by, dear!" Thus he got himself a hug too and I wished them both good luck with their future project. They were overseeing the rebuilding of the more or less destroyed hospital of Darangorlad and were hoping to restart their business there as soon as possible.

After that Xena bent down and hugged Kalian and finally she did something which would have seemed unbelievable just a fortnight ago, she turned to Ares and gave him a heartily hug too.  
"Take care of Nari for me now, big guy! Promise me that!"  
"I promise, Xena." Ares assured as he hugged her back, gently while a bit awkward. "Although I bet you know as well as I do that she's more than capable of doing so herself." Xena laughed and then she and I hugged one last time before I let go of my long time friend. As well as a part of my life.

When Kalian and I mounted the Mileburner we were almost the last ones on board. And regardless of being overexcited about the large vehicle Kalian was a bit shy when his stout uncle offered him to come and sit next to him in the driver's seat up above the rest of us.  
"Go ahead, lad!" Ares urged. "You'll see everything better from up there including how Heph is driving. And if you should happen to change your mind you can always come down here and sit with mum and me!" A slight push in the back and Kalian was off swiftly climbing up the polished brass ladder to the drivers' seat. Meanwhile we took place under the canopy on slightly worn, red velvet seats mounted at the sides of the vehicle, with some of the luggage in the middle between us.  
"All set now?" Hephaestos called out with a loud voice and a lot of replies confirmed that it was the case. Then the large engine was kicked in gear with a rumbling sound, almost like a waking volcano. A likeness enhanced by the fact that even more smoke came billowing up from that black, cylinder shaped chimney pipe. The construction shook like an earthquake before those large wheel below us started to roll and we were moving forward. First slow and lethargic and then faster and faster.

I turned around one last time and looked at the Headquarter which had been our home for about a week, almost a hundred impressed mortals lining the streets and most of all Xena and Lavian who waved like mad until we turned the corner and I lost sight of them. And I knew that it was the last time I saw my long time friend. At that moment I felt my troth swell and the tears becoming impossible to hold back. Leaning against the shoulder of Ares I gave way to the sadness and he laid his strong arm around my shoulders, pulling me nearer and comforting me. Meanwhile from the driver's seat I could hear Kalian exclaim his joy, and begin to chatter, no doubt bombarding poor Hephaestos with a million and one questions.

0O0O0O

That evening we stopped on a high cliff overlooking the sea. Watching the sun sinking among the waves in the west I pondered over how my life had changed so rapidly in just a few days. Three weeks ago I had been working in the Darangorlad hospital, never guessing I'd do anything else for quite some time. Then the war had swept in like a tidal wave, first with the Anatolians and then with the Greeks. And among the latter my beloved had been - and he had been the very last one I expected him to be. If someone had told me three weeks ago that he was Ares I had thought that person being mad. Back then I had simply feared the Greek God of War, just like every other sensible being around had done. I had really believed him to be the monster everyone had talked about. The senseless and war crazed killer and destroyer, the burner, rapier and plunderer.

That had been war propaganda, encouraged not the least by Ares himself. Propaganda, rumours and disinformation, powerful tools, no less potent than any blade or siege machine. Weapon that had made people drop whatever defense they were capable of and run when Ares and his Dark Warriors had come their way, biding next to no resistance at all. So these days Ares seldom had to do any killing himself. Then I believed him when he said that he had only raped once in his life. That was after all more believable than if he had said 'never'. He had told me he had been seventeen and felt like a rookie in the army of his sister Athena. And to prove himself for whoever he felt the need to prove himself for back then he had raped a mortal girl being about his own age - and ended up feeling like a filthy scum afterwards. He hadn't proved anything with that act, he told, and he had never done it again.

Now I heard him talking with Kalian and Hephaestos as I returned to the campfire. Hephaestos was still wearing his long leather cloak, although he had removed that tight-fitting, goggled cap. And he wasn't really that ugly, he appeared more like someone who didn't bother with his looks. Greasy, unkempt hair and stubble robbed him of an otherwise comely face. But there was kindness in those features, his brown eyes shone with interest as he was talking with my son.

"You do have a cool machine, uncle Heph, and you sure must teach me how to drive it one day" Kalian was saying. "But we could have flown much faster to Salenda, why didn't we do that?"  
"Because I wanted to socialize a bit more with my Dark Warriors, make sure they all were all right and had something to return to after war." Ares replied "And this was a fine chance. Besides we'll be in Salenda the day after tomorrow around noon, there's no reason to hurry."

"Okay" Kalian said and returned to his dinner. I sat down next to Kalian and declined another helping of food. Having spent the whole day sitting down didn't really bring about the usual appetite. Instead I felt content with a cup of watered wine and to listening to the conversation going on around me, while trying to push back the sadness still lingering after having said good bye to Xena. She really had been one of a kind when it came to friendship and I doubted that I ever was going to find someone like her again.

Kalian put down his plate and turned to me, I could see that there was something he had been thinking about for a while.  
"Mother" he said. "What's Olympos like?"  
"I guess your father is best at replying to that."  
"He only says it's great and I'm gonna love it there. But what if it's not, what if I hate it? Can we go back to Darangorlad then?"  
"I guess we would have to do it without dad then, and you sure wouldn't want to do that, dear."  
"But dad might go off to another war and then we won't be living together anyhow. Can't we go to Darangorlad if there's another war? I have all my friends there after all."

"Little Hero!" Ares turned from Hephaestos to his son. "You'll get a lot of new friends, I can promise you that. Timing is great, there are usually no children around at Olympos, but these last few years we've been having a kind of baby boom. So there are cousins to you as well as a few aunts and..."  
"You think I wanna play with an old aunt?"  
"One of them is younger than you to be true."

Kalian began to laugh at the very thought. After all to him an aunt was a grown-up.  
"Her name is Soteira, she's my little sister."  
"So your parents - my grandparents - are still having children?"  
"Not on a regular basis, but the last years they had a few. Perhaps my dad has stopped... ah, never mind."  
"How old are they anyway?" Kalian asked.  
"My parents? Zeus is 1252 and Hera is 1234."  
"Wow" Kalian dropped his yaw, and that made me realize I had never asked Ares about his age. And Ares, reading my mind as usual, asked Kalian to guess his age.  
"Thousand" Kalian shrugged.  
"A little bit more, I'm turning 1108 next month."

Kalian wow-ed again and then put on his thinking face before asking:  
"And gods never grow old, never die?"  
"No, not in the mortal sense." Ares replied.  
"How could you kill Taniroth then?"

Now it was Ares' turn to wrinkle his brow:  
"You know the concept of death is not as simple as it might seem" he begun, and I read in his eyes that this was quite a lengthy explanation he was going to give us. Now it was my time to read his mind and I poured him some more wine and handed it over, not bothering with mixing it with water.  
"Thanks dear," he smiled at me before continuing his lecture.

"When mortals die, that's almost always a plain and simple occurrence. They just take the next step further in the great cycle of life-death. The go down under, cross the river Styx and enter the Hades. To be more exact the Asphodel where their souls become cleaned from the memories and traumas from this upper world. When the souls are completely cleaned and pristine, almost like a white sheet of paper they are ready to be reborn, to come back into the upper world to lead new lives. There are a few exceptions though. Hades may, with the help of his advisors, reward some really noble and honorable person with a stay in the Elysian Fields."  
"What's that?" Kalian asked.  
"That's a paradise place, very reminiscent of a seaside resort here where the artificial weather is always great and life is one long vacation, with endless parties and slacking. The mortals can spend as long as they want there but most of them tire after a while and chose to be reborn again."

When Kalian had said cool one more time Ares went on:  
"Then there's the Tartarus trip for the rotten souls. People beyond remedy, real assholes, tainted deep down in their souls - they are considered beyond cleansing. Unable even for the magic process of Asphodel to handle. So these souls are contained deeper down under. Not really in Tartarus to be true, since it's a singularity it's almost impossible to send someone there. But these souls get stored somewhere in those surroundings. I don't really know where other than it's eternally scary places and unable to escape from since the time-space gravity is so hard that you cannot get out. Zeus told me once that's it's easier for a mortal to break the bounds of Earth gravity than for a condemned soul to leave the Tartarus area."

"But usually" Ares went on "the mortal souls just get cleaned off their memories and get sent back up again, into a select growing fetus in some woman's body somewhere."  
"So all the memories are gone?" Kalian asked. "What for?"  
"For the people to not carry any old goods with them but to be able to start anew somewhere else. But those memories aren't really gone, they get recorded somewhere down under, and under special circumstances they can be retrieved. Or at least parts of them."

I had been listening with interest to Ares too, and now I leaned forward:  
"How about immortal souls? I saw when Taniroth died, that he went - well somewhere else. And Ikaton - he was going to some other wicked place. If you kill a god - where do their souls go?"  
"Since immortal souls are not parts of the life-death cycle because of their different composition, they don't go to the Asphodel. Instead they can end up almost anywhere down under. Those waste expanses we refer to as never-under are almost as hard to return from as the Tartarus area. The simple reason is their vastness. An immortal soul severed from its physical body get lost down there and become almost impossible to retrieve. It has been done. My father has done it a handful of times - and even for him it's hard. But I know of no one else who are able to do it."

Ares went on talking about the endless wastes down under, how different they were from what we knew and how scary they were, how they could drive an immortal soul mad. Then I suddenly felt something heavy landing in my lap. Kalian had fallen asleep, most probably against his will.  
"We better do as him and bunk in!" I told Ares. "But I guess this discussion topic is endless."  
"Yes it's quite larger than life," my love replied. "So we could go on for hours. But you're right, Didi-mou, we do need our beauty sleep as well!"


	17. The best of days

**The best of days**

The day after we were back in Salenda. It felt so strange to come here again after all this time. When we had debarked the Mileburner and seen it taking off in a cloud of dust and smoke it suddenly became so silent, so calm. And the salty humidity of the air with its flagrances of resin and sea brought back thousands of memories, some pleasant, other less so, but all of them so surprisingly clear and easy to access. Amazing that just some air in the nostrils could trigger so much in the brain at once.

And there it was, just around the turn of the narrow path, like nothing had changed, like just a few days had passed - that white little cottage. With a strange lump in my troth I opened up my house which had been closed down for so long. Not surprisingly it smelt of dampness and old dust and the spiders were back. And they had brought friends too. Ares went and dismounted the planks I had put on the windows, whistling a happy tune as he did so and I looked at the hopeless task of cleaning the place. Kalian came in and stood beside me and I squeezed his shoulders and asked:  
"Do you remember living here?"  
"Nah… Did we?"  
"Yes, when you were little. Until you were three years old you and I lived here and I was working with Xena down at her clinic in the village."  
"I sort of remember… The beach. And a fireplace" Kalian seemed to think it over. "But not such a tiny place."  
"That was because you were so much smaller then."

Ares had got the last window free and now light was streaming in on the dusty floor and the covered furniture in the main room. But save for the dirt and the spiders nothing seemed really destroyed. My beloved entered from behind, laid his arms around my waist and I sighed:  
"This place will take forever to clean. I did it once but then there were little else for me to do so I was fine with it. But now - it just feel like an undoable task."  
"You don't have to clean it if you don't want, Didi-mou." he chuckled in my ear.  
"But we can't stay in this mess!"  
"Don't worry! I'll take care of it!"  
"You're gonna clean, dad?" Kalian's voice was full of doubt.  
"Not exactly. Come!"

We exited the place, and when we came out in the garden we were met by what at first glance looked like three preteen girls. But looking closer I saw that they had an odd greenish hue to their skin, a hue that in some lights even seemed purple! And their hairs were longer than any human hair could ever be, flying around them in strawberry blond locks and braids, decorated with pearls, flowers, gems and golden garlands. Nymps! I had rarely seen these beings; they tended to stay out of places inhibited by humans.

"Nuria, Telnia, Valdia!" Ares addressed them. "We need your help now. This house belongs to my dear Narinda and it needs to be made beautiful."  
"Trust us, Great Ares," the girl in the middle said in a singing lilt and the others smiled even brighter. Then they were gone - it seemed. But the next moment there were activity heard from the house. Voices and things being moved. Ares smiled at us:  
"Being Olympian has its benefits sometimes."

"Can we go down to the beach now?" Kalian asked.  
"Sure, darling, why not?" I replied. I looked at my son; he sure had grown in confidence and mental strength those last days. Getting to know his father and receiving his love and respect had been such a boost for Kalian, and I was happy for this development. With a quick smile I took his hand and we started down the little pathway to the stairs which someone had cut into the rock ages ago. They were even more withered now, and the old warning I had got upon moving in to tread carefully felt even more accurate. Anyhow Kalian held on to me and Ares, following behind us, was even more used to rough terrain, so we made it down to the beach without incidents.

The beach looked exactly like I remembered it, the same flowing dunes, almost like a dry extent of the ocean. The same boulders lying around, the same tiny brooks making shallow deltas in the sand and the white lighthouse stood on its rock out to the west, like it had done so since the beginning of time. There were empty sea-shells and driftwood littering the sand and the waves were patting the edge slowly, the sea was unusually calm beneath the hazy sun. Looking up I saw that the sun was surrounded by a glittering halo and several sun-dogs. Most people believed that to be a bad omen, but I knew it only meant that it would rain before midnight. Gods didn't write signs in the sky when they were up to mischief. I mean why bother?

As if on an unspoken agreement we all stripped off our clothes, ran out in the waves and bathed and swam for quite some time. It felt wonderful to dive in this cold, green water, to swim against the strong and swirling currents and then pop up to the surface and look around me. Once again I was seeing this magnificent view I had always loved so much. The pine-clad hills, the meadows with the gracing cattle, the pastel coloured houses in the village. And as a backdrop those grand, snow-capped mountains, partly hidden by stray clouds. Seeing them I once again wondered what it was like. Olympos. Ares' home. He had said we were going there in just a few days, and I was nervous and quite uneasy at the prospect. The other gods - how would they regard me? An insignificant healer with hardly more powers than a mortal.

Anyhow, I decided to not think about it, instead I dived down again and swam up to the shore. Kalian was there holding something in his hand. A little crab I saw.  
"It's nibbling at me" he told with a smile.  
"That's because it's scared. It's its way to try to defend itself. Why don't you put it down in the water where it belongs?"

Kalian hesitated a second before he obeyed.  
"Where's dad?"  
"He's out there swimming" I indicated with my head where I saw him crawling, he was far out, clearly enjoying himself. Kalian and I walked a bit and sat down in the sand, letting the sun dry off the water from our bodies, while we talked for a while. Kalian leaned against me, and I laid my arm around him. A short time back he had started to hesitate when it came to physical contact and similar ways to show attachment, but since he had got used to the way Ares hugged us he had seemingly stopped thinking it was weird to express emotions by touching, holding and hugging and it gladdened me.

When Ares returned from the waves we dressed and started to walk towards the village, and I recalled the very first time Ares and I had walked that very way. How different everything had been back then. Back then when I hadn't known who my Ares really was or believed that the war would matter the slightest in my life. Back then I had thought I'd stay in Salienda for quite some time, or at least as long as I could go on pretending I was a regular mortal. Now these days were gone in most ways. Holding Kalian's hand while Ares held on to his other, I started to figure what to do next. That was a luxury I hadn't enjoyed in a long time, there had always been duties calling for attention. People needing help, first from the healer and then from the goddess... Thus I had nothing special in mind first, but then it hit me that I should seek out Irdama and Nandran, see how they were doing.

0O0O0O

My friends were fine and their farm was flourishing, everything looked all right.  
"We got lucky", Nandran said after the first happy reunion cheers and the introduction of Ares/Arian. "The war passed us by without really hitting. There were Greeks here, but they were more like checking the place out. Bought fish and hay for all their hungry horses, and then they were off. We heard that they hit Amargoran hard though."

I knew why Salenda had been spared but I said nothing.

Now we were sitting at a newly built patio, overlooking a large field where a handful of horses were gracing. Kalian had run off to play with Irdama and Nandran's two boys and to check out the steeds. He knew to not tell anybody of Ares, and I trusted that he kept to our 'official' story of a generic Greek warrior. It was enough to impress with anyway.

"Nari, Arian," Irdama said. "Are you staying?"  
"In Salenda? Unfortunately not. Well, we're keeping my place. As a kind of holiday retreat. But Arian has his family in Greece and a lot of life to return to now when the war is over."  
"Well, I guess we'll see you during holidays then," Nandran said. And Irdama surprised me with questioning:  
"How about your parents? You've never told anything about them."

I flinched. I hadn't even thought about making up a reasonable story about them. I had simply avoided the subject during all those years, first in Inthorergon, then here and later on in Darangorlad. And Ares hadn't asked, it was as if he felt that I didn't want to touch the subject. Now I breathed in and said:  
"They're dead." It felt like the easiest way to end the discussion, and at that moment it felt like it was true too. No matter if they really were down under or not, to me they felt dead and had been so for almost thirty years now.

I felt Ares' eyes upon me, and I heard Irdama say she was sorry, and then the subject was dropped. Nandran fixed the mood again by pouring more lemonade and beginning to talk about their recently acquired horses.  
"So many horses were stolen by the soldiers around during the war that the prices have gone up a great deal. So starting to breed horses has been a good business decision."  
"They're fine specimens," Ares said. And he should know.

0O0O0O

We stopped along the way home to buy fish, fruit and bread, and to check out the harbour and the fishing boats, and then we walked out on the pier where Ares taught Kalian and me how to throw small stones in the water so they skipped upon the surface several times before they disappeared beneath. It looked impossible first, but after a while both our son and I had managed the trick at least once. Thus several hours had passed before we returned to the house again. There we found the nymphs gone but the place in perfect shape. There were even vases filled with forest flowers and clean curtains hanging in front of equally clean windows. And the fireplace was prepared for a nice evening fire.  
"I can't believe they found time for all this!" I exclaimed upon entering the house.  
"Well, they're pros," Ares smiled. "They and their sisters do all the cleaning, laundry and repair work at Olympos."  
"There's more?" I raised my brows.  
"There are about two hundreds of them."

"All sisters?"  
"Well, not sisters of blood. But of the same bloodline. Most are actually cousins and mothers and daughters and aunts and nieces et cetera to each other, but nymphs refer to all of their own blood line as sisters. A daughter older than fifteen even refer to her mother as 'sister'. A bit strange for our kind, but they're fine with it."  
"So it's true then, that there are no male nymphs?" I asked.  
"Well, there are males as well. But they are rare and they don't live as long, they reach fifty or perhaps sixty while a female can become 300 years old. On top of that there are twenty female nymphs on every male born. And the males are even shyer than the females, so there's very few among the mortals who have actually seen one."

"Oh! Twenty on one! That means catfights, right?"  
"No, the girls are mostly fine with sharing the boys around them. And if that's not enough there are always gods, satyrs and human males available."  
"Faiths!" I looked at Kalian, he was listening intensely and I blushed, but Ares was only laughing. I realized that having lived my whole life among the mortals, there were a lot of things I had to get used to in the immortal world.

0O0O0O

Kalian had fallen asleep in my arms and the fire had died down to gleaming embers. Their orange light and a sole candle was the only illumination in the living room now. Ares stretched and changed position:  
"Didi. There's something I've been wanting to ask you."  
"Yes?" I could feel the awkward tenseness in his voice, and it made me a bit uncomfortable as well. I looked from Kalian's relaxed face and up to Ares.  
"It's about your parents; they're not really dead, right?"

I sighed. I had known that I would have to tell him some day, but I had hoped to be able to postpone it a bit longer.  
"You don't have to if you don't want to…"  
"Ares, sooner or later I would have to. Now is not a better or a worse time than any other."

I caught my breath, regarding the shadows in my beloved's face, the gleam in his thoughtful eyes. It was impossible to figure out what he was thinking.  
"No, they're not really dead." I began. "At least as far as I know. They should be in their seventies now. But - I don't see them anymore. You might say I divorced them."  
"Why?"  
"When I grew up my mother was distant and cold, and my father made no secret that he loathed me. I had no siblings, and I was raised around nannies and then governesses, I didn't even dine with my parents until I was about ten. I hardly met any other children either, so I had no idea about how different I really was. We were wealthy and lived a bit off the village on a large estate, so I was lonely most of the time as a child. It wasn't until I was twelve and met my second last governess, a Spartan medic and former army surgeon; I finally understood who I was and what I could become. "

"Telegonus, that was his name, he recognized me as an immortal and told me what I ought to do with my life instead of rot in my parents' mansion. He taught me all about medicine, about the human body and about cures and herbs. About how the inner organs worked, about deceases and how to deal with wounds and injuries. My hand healing worked of course, but Telegonus told me that it would function best together with the 'regular methods'. Hand healing is after all tough; ridding someone of an infection is a hard deed. And killing a far gone cancer is like running a Marathon. One such case and you can't help anyone else that day. But combined with the 'regular methods' of medicine I could be able to work miracles, Telegonus told."

"After two years my governess considered that I ought to go to one of the schools of Asklepios to learn more and become a medic for real. When he suggested that to my father I had thought father would be proud and accept to send me there. But he was furious; he had hoped to marry me off, although he thought it a more or less hopeless case marrying off his 'freak daughter'."

I stopped, dried my tears and Ares asked:  
"Did he really call you that?"  
I nodded and went on:  
"I had always, all my childhood, tried to do something, anything to earn my parents' respect and love. I learned to ride, I learned languages, math, literature and to shoot with the bow, to fence and some martial arts. I tried to make myself look as good as the girls downtown with curly hairdos and nice dresses. But I was too tall and average. And my parents were either uninterested or outright mean. Mother never said that much, she mainly cried and called me a bad accident. And father cursed and called me freak and bastard and all kind of things. Although he didn't hit me - he was civilised and law-abiding after all - the scars in my soul hurt more than any physical abuse would have done. "

Ares went up and carried Kalian off to bed in the little room before returning and taking me in his arms, drying my tears with gentle fingers:  
"I understand you divorced them as you call it. What happened next, after Telegonus had recommended you for the medic school that is?"  
"Tel was sent away. He was 'useless' according to father. Then I got another governess, a daft old man who really knew nothing about anything and was more like a guardian than anything else. That had me make up my mind. I was hardly fifteen when I ran away from home, eager to find one of Asklepios' schools by myself and try to enter. I had no luck the first year, I was too young, but some priestesses of Athena took mercy upon me and sheltered me in their temple. And there I stayed until I was sixteen and could enter Asklepios' school."

"And your parents, did they find you again?"  
"My father did, he came to the temple, but at that time I had already sworn myself to the goddess so there was nothing he could do. I was under the goddess' protection and if he had tried to break that he would have been punished severely. Perhaps even by the goddess herself. But I guess you know that, right."  
"Yes, my sister is very accurate with guarding hers."  
"Then I actually believe my father really was glad to be rid of me. That was the last I ever saw of him. Ares - I don't miss my childhood or them a bit. I'm so happy for Kalian; he has parents who love him."  
"Yes we all need that. My parents can be odd sometimes, but they love their offspring."

He held me and we sat in silence for a while. It had started to rain; I had been right about the ring around the sun. The thrumming of water against the roof oddly enough made me feel better, as if the elements were trying to soothe me. And my lovers' embrace was warm and caring and as usual it made me feel so safe and protected. Loved and valuable.  
"Didi-mou." Ares said after a while. "I think you should know that today I've had one of the best days in my life."

0O0O0O

I woke up to bird song and the smell of fresh linen. And a happy feeling of being 'home' again. In my little house in Salenda. I turned in the bed; Ares was up already, although the warmth of his body still lingered next to mine. That and his now familiar flagrance. I wondered if Kalian had risen too, even though I doubted it. Ares and I had made our bed in the living room, while Kalian was sleeping in my old little room. It was cramped but not really impossible, yet I figured that if we should keep the house we had to add another room. At least. Perhaps a second floor?

I peeked out through the window, and saw Ares in the garden. He was talking to a stately, tall goddess with a remarkable, metallic-blue hair. Quickly I picked up my chiton and put it on, but when I came out in the garden the goddess was gone. Still I had to ask:  
"Who was that?"  
"She's Atropos, one of the faithes, the one responsible for the past. I guess you know the faithes." Ares put his hands on my hips and pulled me closer and in turn I reached up and removed some needles from a pine which had become stuck in his dark hair.

"Yeah, they don't make the future like some people think, they interpret it."  
"One does, that's Lachesis. Then there's Kloto, who interprets the present and Atropos who interprets the past. After hearing your sad story yesterday I decided to check into your past, to see if I could understand why your parents were such terrible beings. And Atropos uncovered some interesting facts."  
"Like what?"

"First of all, they are both dead now, just as you thought. Your mother died 18 years ago and the man you believed was your father died three years later. The thing is he wasn't your father. He could never have fathered you, because he was not functioning down there. Your father is the medicine god Inandon, a son of Leto. Your mother used to meet him when her husband was out of town. She became pregnant and her husband went hysteric. But there was nothing he could do; he didn't dare to act against the daughter of a god. He wanted to send you away but your mother promised to kill herself if that happened. "

"So she did care. At least in the beginning."  
"I guess as much. Still the event tore something apart in her soul and she couldn't give you the love you deserved. And her husband despised her for it and loathed you. And he feared you as well."  
"Feared?"  
"Yes, because you're immortal. You got the necessary traits from Inandon together with some latent powers your mother carried, an inheritance from some immortal somewhere way up in her family tree."  
"Unbelievable almost! There's... I always wondered why I had become immortal."  
"Atropos couldn't tell who that the divine ancestor of your mother was, she didn't recognize the genes. She guessed it might have been some old god or goddess who got killed by the titans and whose lineage is more or less extinct."

"Tell me about Inandon, my real father!"  
"Didi-mou, we can go see him later. Since he's a son of Leto and her husband Pandios, he's a maternal brother to Apollo. This family tie makes you a cousin to Asklepios, the god you revere. Life can be such an irony sometimes, huh! And it's from Leto's line you've inherited your healing abilities. Apollo has them too, but they're even more prominent in his son. This also means that you have blood connections to the Olympos clan too, even if those don't touch mine, since I'm Hera's son and hence not related to Leto. "

I was breath taken. I looked at Ares, where he stood with the sun in his hair and a happy smile plastered all over his face. It made me feel better too. Being related to Apollo and Asklepios had suddenly raised my status quite a bit. I had a father for real. A god. I could just hope he would accept me as his daughter. Yet even if he did not I would still have Ares and Kalian to call my family.

Kalian, yes! He came running out in the sunshine that very moment, and was soon over and hugged first me and then his father, before he suggested:  
"Let's go down to the beach!"  
"Well, first we're going to have breakfast, right?" Ares said.  
"You know what, gentlemen?" I said as Kalian started to protest, "I sometimes made a picnic out of my breakfast and took it down to the beach and ate it there. Why not doing that today?"

0O0O0O

We spent the whole day by the beach, swimming and playing around in the water. And just as Ares had told yesterday this sure felt like one of the best days in my life. So when we walked up to the house again as the sun was setting, all of us felt nicely tired and relaxed and thus I guess no one noticed the being who skulked in the shadows. Not until Ares was attacked. An immortal, dark clad from top to toe and even with the face obscured, came with the speed of a tornado, sword and axe raised against my unarmed beloved.


	18. Athena

**Athena**

"Ares!" my voice almost got stuck in my troth and with a shiver of terror running down my spine I pulled Kalian towards me, holding him close and hard and wishing there was a way for me to stop him from seeing his father becoming attacked. Because this was no Anatolian god, this was something far worse, a deity with an aura burning almost as red as Ares' own and radiant with an invincible force. I had hardly seen anything more powerful in my whole life, this god in his cover-all tar-black leather outfit held as much strength as Ares himself - if not even more.

Still my beloved was not resource less, far from it. He kicked into battle mood with an almost unbelievable speed, and ducked the attackers attempt with a swift and agile move. The leather clad god turned and attacked again, and this time Ares blocked the sword arm with his own left elbow and at the same time he reached for the arm with the axe and somehow managed to wrestle that weapon away from the adversary. Spinning away he raised his newly claimed weapon against the dark clad one and swung it in a wide and forceful arc towards him.

The dark clad defended himself, lifted the sword almost as fast as Ares and when their weapon collided sparkles were flying and the metal clashed and grinded.  
"Dad?" Kalian screamed.  
"Please, don't distract him!" I pleaded while holding on to my son and Kalian made an agreeing whimper. Still Ares was quite the pro, he hadn't lived and fought for millennia without learning to avoid diversion, he had his full attention upon the attacker and that one's rapid moves and fleet fencing.

Both of them spun aside again and attacked once more. Several times those fast paced attacks became repeated, and each time both gods moved a little bit quicker, a little bit less hesitant, trying different steps and tricks - trying to outsmart the other one. Once again - just as with the duel against Taniroth, the fight reminded me of an intricate dance. But the dark god was far more swift and skilled than Taniroth had ever appeared. Luckily he didn't seem to take notice of me and Kalian but concentrated solely on Ares, who was trying to move the attacker out of our way to make it possible for us to reach the house. But the dark clad god was blocking the path, not letting us trough, and I didn't dare to try to move around and have the dark clad's attention shifting towards us instead of Ares. Perhaps that could be a way to distract this skilful enemy, I thought, and thus give Ares an upper hand. But I dared not risk anything like that. Not with Kalian with me. It would have been a completely different story if I had been alone. Then I'd do anything to help my Ares.

Now I could only watch, regard the two fighters who looked eerily equal. The attacker wasn't as large and muscular as Ares, instead it was a slender and lithe agility to that fit body, strong muscles glimpsing beneath those loose-fitting dark clothes, piercing blue eyes focusing on my beloved behind the black facemask. After seeing Ares in Darangorlad and Rhembosia I had thought no one could match him - but now I realized that there might be quite a few gods out there who held a lot more powers than the Anatolians. And Ares did have plenty of enemies. Gods he and his army had defeated, gods who burned with the desire of revenge. Could this be one of them? Could this be a god Ares had conquered and who saw his chance for revenge now when the Greek was lax and inattentive, leading a relaxed holiday life with his newly found little family?

The attacker was strangely and eerily silent all the time, didn't roar or scream anything the way fighters usually did, didn't even grunt. The only thing heard was an odd huff now and then. And thus Ares remained silent as he fought too. This sure was even more creepy than some generic war cries.

Then all of a sudden the attacker managed to surprise Ares with a serie of strange and fast moves and rapidly the sword was wielded in an odd trajectory, while the attacker spun around on his heels. As the sword connected with the axe it hit lower than expected and severed the wooden handle. The force of the clash made the cut-off axe blade fly through the air in our direction and I felt my shielding slam shut as the sharp iron blade connected with my aura. The iron bounced against my shielding, ricocheted and the next second it buried itself deep into a nearby trunk with such a force that the tree shivered and let loose quite a few dry leaves.

Ares didn't let the small defeat of losing his newly gained weapon stop him, he hit the detached wooden handle against the upper torso of the dark clad and as it impacted the enemy was forced back and almost lost his balance. But not for long, in an instant the powerful god came against Ares again and swung the large sword and my beloved could do nothing but duck while trying to get another hit with the handle. But the dark clad was not to be fooled a second time, he avoided Ares' petty weapon and danced away on his heels, spun and came at my beloved again in one swift move, still swinging the sword.

As the God of War ducked yet another time I was starting to get the certain feeling that there was something not quite right here, this was not what it looked like. But I could not put my finger upon what was off, I wasn't that skilled at gauging spontaneous duels like this one. And as Ares somehow got a grip on the dark clad's left arm and swung it around himself, I saw my beloved's expression, and it looked almost like he was - smiling. And not the angered snarl of someone who was burning with the desire of defeating an enemy and defending his loved ones, but the wicked smile of a man who had just learned a secret. Did Ares have a hidden dice up his arm, I wondered. And wasn't it time to play it now?

"Come on, baby!" I whispered under my breath as Ares slung his opponent to the ground with heavy crash. I heard rocks splitting against divine shielding and I saw how the other god pulled Ares with him in the fall. Then the two of them were rolling around in the grass wrestling and hitting each other, slamming their heads against roots and stones. Too late did I realize that I could have taken this chance to run past the fighters and reaching the house and safety for me and Kalian. The next second Ares was over the dark clad, bending his hand so he dropped the sword. Since Ares had to hold on to the enemy he could not possibly reach the sword with his hands so instead he kicked it far away into the underbrush. But the dark clad put heavy booted feet towards Ares' torso and kicked hard, so the war god flew off him and landed hard in a thorn thicket a good bit away. And as Ares rose the dark clad did so too.

Now both fighters were unarmed though and they attacked each other with fists and kicks. Thus I learned that the dark clad seemed to know as much weaponless martial art as Ares, and was just as fast and skilled. But now Ares' greater strength became an advantage and several times he managed to get in real bad hits at his opponent, forcing the dark clad backwards. Still the enemy did not relent, and when Ares hit him so hard that he fell to the ground he was fast to roll away out of harm's way, and Ares had no chance to get a real grip. When the dark clad rose anew there was a knife glistening in one of the leather-glowed hands.

Now the dark clad attacked even faster, and slashed wildly at Ares who had to back off, and once again blocking the way to the house. I saw the chance to get into safety with our son slip once more. Then as the fighters moved around making Ares end up with his back against me, I got eye contact with the attacker for the first time. And those dark blue eyes - they were a woman's eyes! The eye contact was only brief, still I was certain, it was a woman who was attacking Ares. Some kind of war goddess from faith knows where who was perhaps even mightier than my beloved. And her eyes hadn't show rage, neither hate - but something else. Curiosity perhaps. Now this was really strange. What did she want?

One final time she and Ares clashed, and this time Ares managed to sweep his opponent off the ground with a foot and as she fell, Ares was over her with a lion's strength. But he must have made some mistake I didn't see what, because the dark clad goddess managed to roll around so that she got up and around Ares in one single, agile move, and she got a firm grip of his long hair with her left hand. Her right hand, the one with the knife, was pushed against the troth of Ares, as if she would slash it the next second. It was at that moment I finally realized what had been wrong the whole time. They had fought with iron - not Adamantine. Iron couldn't hurt a god, the event with the flying axe blade ought to have made me understand that earlier, but I had been too caught up in the conflict and stiff with fear to realize what was wrong with the fight.

"Okay, Owl, you win," Ares sighed and the dark clad took away her knife and let go of Ares' hair. Then she removed her cowl and face mask and a thick mane of honey blond hair fell out around an unbelievable beautiful face. A face I knew very well. Athena!  
"This time you win, sis'" Ares turned around and faced his sister who laughed.  
"Like most of the times, dear baby bro'"  
"You learned some dirty tricks in wild west, I can tell," Ares said and rose, brushing dirt from his tights.  
"As have you in the far east," Athena replied and stretched her arms and neck. "I can't wait for us to have an exchange workshop, and I bet you can't either."  
"No," Ares said. "But first -" he turned "- meet Narinda and Kalian. My beloved fiancée and our son."  
"The owl goddess!" I could hear Kalian say, his voice echoing the surprise I felt.

Surprise and relief, as I understood what had taken place here in the little forest clearing. A game, a kind of sparring fight between a sister and brother who loved to measure themselves against each other, who loved to compete and outwit the other one. A sister and brother couple who most mortals believed despised each other. But nothing could be more wrong, there were a deep love and respect between these two. As well as an enduring competition connected to all and everything martial.

Athena shifted focus and faced me and Kalian instead of her brother.  
"Hello there! Nice to meet the two of you." She came up and took mine and Kalian's hands, one in each. "Sorry about the earlier circumstances though. But I guess I couldn't help myself when I saw little brother with his guards so much down. Too much an irresistible temptation."  
"Yes, you saw your only chance to beat me, sugarplum!" Ares came up and laid one large hand on my shoulder and the other on his sister's.  
"Bollocks and you know it; I beat you most of the time. But that's not why I'm here. I'm going to need some help, Aru."

Getting over my initial chock I looked at the sister-brother duo and said:  
"Let's go inside. We can eat and drink something while discussing further. I'll hope, Athena, what I can offer will be to your satisfaction."  
"I'm sure it will," the daughter of Zeus smiled with an honest face.

O0O0O

Zeus' daughter Athena was a goddess I had always regarded with great revere and admiration. She was the one, whose servants had received and sheltered a homeless 15 year old with aspirations in medicine. She was the one who always advocated justice and integrity and who believed that even a young teenager's needs and wants were worth respect. Her priestesses and servants had protected me from my crazed step father when he had seeked me out once during the time I was staying in Athena's temple. And the priestesses had made sure I came under the goddess' protection until there was time for me to enter the academy of Asklepios and become one of his disciples. From then on had I always treated Athena with special esteem. I had always lighted a candle at her altar as well as at Asklepios' first thing when I came to a new place, and I had always attended her festivals as well as Asklepios'. The goddess of wisdom had been special to me in many ways.

Thus it felt quite surreal to receive Athena in my home tonight and to be regarded by her as an equal. As someone who was a family member and a friend-to-be. Athena, with her glittering blue eyes in an open and honest face had me more or less pinching my arm, as she was sitting there in my tiny kitchen in a white linen tunic and black leather pants, the latter the only thing reminding me of the dark shadow which had frightened both me and Kalian at that narrow forest path when she had attacked Ares. And those long legs she kept moving around to find a comfortable position in the narrow corner. Now she was as friendly as ever, complimenting me on my neat house and my humble supper of bread, cheese, wine and lemonade.  
"So you're the one who took off with Ares' heart" Athena went on. "I guess I never thought it would really happen. I thought Aphrodite held him in a too short leash."

I looked at Ares with a bit of concern but he only laughed as he squeezed my arm:  
"Aphrodite has very little to tempt me with anymore. She and I are over and done with. She might be pretty and sex on a stick all the way, but in the end that's not what I desire anymore. It was indeed time for me to get real. And Didi became my perfect remedy."  
"Yes, a daughter of Inandon, that ought to do it even for my warring brother." Athena smiled.  
"Oh, speak for yourself Amazon!" Ares returned.

"Are you always teasing each other?" Kalian asked, looking at the goddess with curious brown eyes.  
"Yes I guess we can't help it. Old habits die hard." Athena replied. "I imagine you'll learn that one day when you get little sisters and brothers too, how fun it is to tease them."  
"Oh, Athi, don't give the little hero any dumb ideas," Ares returned. "After all Narinda and I will definitely have more children in the future."  
"Yeah and then Kalian ought to know how it works, right?"

Ares filled up more lemonade and then the twinkle was gone from his brown eyes:  
"You said you needed help, Owl. Explain!"  
"Ares, I wonder, now when your war is over, if you can spare a few men. Some of your Dark Warriors. Oh, I know that you probably don't want to throw yourself head over heels directly into a new war, now when you have Narinda and Kalian to care for, but if you have some heroes looking for mercenary service, I'd be more than delighted. You know we do need a lot more people to defend the Iberian Islet from the Visigoths."  
"Athi, stop beating around the proverbial bush! As if you haven't done that enough today! You want Achilles - than say it!"

"Why of course I do! And whoever else you can spare!"  
"As you said yourself, my war is over. You can enlist everyone you want. I know for sure that quite a few of my fighters are less than comfortable with the concept of peace and who will definitely jump on the chariot if there's a chance to do so. Who'll have their swords ready before you can even say 'enlist'. I believe Achilles is back home at Olympos since about yesterday, so just go ahead and ask him!"  
"Thank you, Ares! I sure will!"  
"Achilles?" I asked. "Your second in command? What's he doing at Olympos?"  
"Why, he lives there," Athena said.  
"A mortal?"

"Achilles is a god," Athena explained. "Although he started out as a demigod two hundred years ago. His mother an Oceanid - Thetis. His father Peleus a mortal general. And Achilles - just as almost every demigod - had the ability in him for apotheosis, which means transformation into immortality. When a demigod reaches his or her life's equilibrium, where their life hangs in balance and they might die, their perception of time/space stops for a while and they reach a certain understanding of how it works. And they get the chance to chose - to go further on in the mortal cycle of life/death. To die as we normally would say it. Or they can take a step aside, exit the circle and reach immortality. To become gods."  
"But who wants to die?"  
"More than you would guess, Narinda. After all the concept of immortality can feel as scary as death for a mortal. Death they know, immortality is alien to most. The gods feel far away and strange and walking endlessly on Earth, while losing all the mortal beloved ones like spouse and children might feel less pleasant than to just die and forget. Those who chose immortality are often those who die young, like Achilles, who wasn't even thirty."  
"Twenty eight," Ares said.

"So Achilles chose to become a god? But that doesn't mean he's getting a free ticket to Olympos, so how did he end up with you guys?"  
"I hired him," my beloved explained. "After all such a valuable fighter was too good to pass on."

I thought hard on that for a while. Then I said:  
"Achilles is... THE Achilles? I mean the hero from Troy."  
"I just wondered when you'd guess." Ares replied.  
"But his aura - that sure was a mortal one! How come..."  
"Achilles has a rare ability" Athena told. "He can disguise his immortal self even to other gods. Hide his aura and having his energies look like those emitted from just another mortal. This makes him among other things a brilliant spy who can sneak around among gods unnoticed, since a lot of the gods hardly care for snooping mortals, thinking them too insignificant to bother with."

"Cool!" Kalian said. "So he was in Troy too. I gotta ask him about that when I meet him the next time. I want to know all and everything about that war."  
"And I can tell you all and everything," his father replied.  
"Not what it was like to kill Hector."

Athena started to laugh at Kalian's comment.  
"He's brilliant! Always having an answer! Guess you'll have to start thinking now Ares. And not just battling."  
"Guess that explains a lot I've been wondering about Achilles" I said. "Like how he appeared almost out of nowhere back in that Darangorlad park and intercepted me and Kalian. Did he know who I was?"  
"Of course he did." Ares said. "All my dark warriors knew and were told to look out for you. Although Achi was a bit rough with you. It's easy to do these mistakes during war."  
"Never mind, he did apologize later" I smiled.

Then Ares wanted to know more about the war in the west, and Athena started to tell about marauding hordes of Visigoths and the Romans who were well disciplined but oh so devoid of creativity. And I got to learn that Heracles was involved out there too, at the moment solving problems on an island called Britannia. Athena told about battles and heroes and villains and I saw the glean in Ares' eyes as he was torn between his desire to join these fightings and spend time with us. But in the end the family man won and he said:  
"If I miss this one, there'll always be new wars coming. And I like those Romans; I'm sure going to teach them a few things later on."  
"I trust you will," Athena smiled. "They're really martial inclined."

Meanwhile Kalian fought his own war - the one against sleep. He wanted to hear and learn the whole lot about Athena's battles. But in the end sleep conquered and I had to carry him to bed.

"He's wonderful" Athena said when I returned. "Children that age - they're oh! So..." The goddess of wisdom suddenly got teary eyed, and then she rose.  
"Well, I have to get going, duty calls! Thanks to you both and I hope to see you soon at Olympos! You'll love it there, Narinda."

As Athena took off in the sky I thought about her last comment regarding children. It had sounded so bittersweet and also as if it was a subject she wanted to avoid. Perhaps that had to do with the virgin goddess thing. That she longed so much for the children she might never have...

O0O0O

We had some more relaxing days in Salenda, Ares, Kalian and I. Days spent with swimming and walking and I had caught up with more of my old friends. They had asked me about Xena and were saddened to learn that she was not returning, that she had decided to stay in Darangorlad.  
"Now we have no medic, we have to go to Gotandra to see the doc there." my old friend Malizza had said. "And that dude ain't half as good as you girls were."

I guessed I would have to send someone here one day. Perhaps Asklepios could help me with that, I thought.

Then one evening Ares announced that the day after tomorrow would be a fine day to finally go to Olympos. And while Kalian got delighted I couldn't help feeling quite a bit nervous.


	19. Welcome to Olympos

**Welcome to**** Olympos**

I had expected Olympos to be magnificent, but my fantasy had not been able to fully envisage its grandeur, and I was breath taken upon coming nearer. We were riding Ares' flying chariot, propelled by divine magic, so we got to see the whole magnificent vista from above. At first there was just this imposing mountain which side we were ascending. It was steep and the summit appeared like just another snow-clad peak halfway hidden in clouds. But as we were sweeping over the pinnacle we passed a kind of a borderline where the snow was traded into grasslands and meadows. There were small rivers, tiny lakes and waterfalls cascading down the rocks, painting rainbows in the sky. There were pretty houses making up a neat little village hardly larger than Salenda and there were delicate bridges spanning waters and canyons. I spotted large tended gardens and meadows where the most splendid horses were gracing and frolicking around.

In the middle of this delightful paradise garden rose a small hill with a marble palace, inlaid with golden, silver and copper details, glittering and shimmering in the sun. I had perhaps expected something like tenfold the Royal Palace of Inthorergon, larger and more imposing, but this palace was rather small, incredible beautiful and with an architecture that seemed to defy gravity with its arcs, domes and pillars. And it seemed – unexpectingly welcoming. Like its very structure itself was transmitting friendliness and open arms.

Ares didn't take us to the palace immediately though, first we went to his place. He had a house which laid at the very edge of one of those steep mountain walls, like it was clinging to the rock. Thus it had a breathtaking view over a deep canyon and a roaring waterfall, and further away the rolling green hills of Thessalia.

"There are clouds _beneath_ us!" Kalian pointed out, clearly amazed by the sight.  
"That's because we're more than 10 000 feet up", Ares explained. "And there are a lot of clouds about halfway down from here."  
"Why isn't it freezing?" I asked. "I thought that up on this altitude it would be both ice cold and sparse with oxygen."  
"That's because we're inside of an aegis field. It keeps a higher air pressure inside as well as a warmer climate. That's something Zeus, my father, has created. I'm not really sure how it works; you'll have to ask him for details if you want to know. "

We landed at a cobblestone square in front of Ares' house, and I was a bit rubber-legged from the ride, I had to admit. Kalian on the other hand was off quickly and ran up to the house.  
"Where is that horse you promised me, dad?" he asked eagerly turning around, his body language happy and excited.  
"Calm down a bit, little Hero" Ares advised. "That'll have to wait until tomorrow. We'll go to the fields and see what horses are available there, and from them we can see which one will fit you the best. A horse is not something you just 'pick', son. It's a being and there must be chemistry between the rider and the stead, otherwise it won't work. You might have to mount quite a few before we find the ideal horse for you, Kalian. And we don't have the time for that today, because you're got to get acquainted first to this place and then we're expected up at the palace of Zeus later to say hello to the rest of the clan."  
"That's the big house on the top, right?" Kalian guessed, pointing in the general direction of the palace.  
"You're right, we're going there tonight. First I'll show you my humble place though!"

It was anything but humble, the house of Ares. It was quite grand and airy, and with large windows opening up to the spectacular view. Ares told that he had prepared the place to hold a bigger family once, but for a long time he had been alone, so he kept parts of the house closed down. There was a complete lover level not in use for instance. But the inhibited parts were homelike and welcoming. I had perhaps expected the place to be dominated by his profession, but there was very little in there that reminded me of war. Some of the paintings covering the walls pictured battles and duels as well as arms and similar appliances, but there were also a lot of paintings of horses and wild animals as well as fantasy art of cities with breathtaking architecture.

There were swords, spears, shields and banners decorating some walls of course, and the library seemed to hold a lot of martial literature too. In spite I got a certain feeling that when my beloved came home, he left his work behind to relax and wind down.

When Ares showed us around I got the definite impression that he was proud of his home. That he had taken his good time to turn it into what he really wanted. It wasn't so much an interior decoration thing or a try to "express himself" as a place which was both comfortable and convenient, with small corners to gather and relax in and handy systems to store and to find things. Some of the furnishing appeared to be in mint condition, others seemed to be well worn so it was easy to see where his favourite places were. Like a corner with a ebony table holding a board game with the ornate pieces set up as if it was just waiting for the next play.

Ares told about his old bedroom which would now house Kalian while he and I would get a larger room to share. He also told that the nymphs had taken our things and were unpacking them.  
"Where are your arms?" Kalian wanted to know.  
"I do indeed keep some of them here. In the basement. We can have a look at them if you want. Nevertheless most of the weaponry is kept in a main underground storage a bit away. There's after all no reason for me to keep more than the most necessary items here. Although I'm certain most people would regard the 400 square feet large room a bit excessive."

After showing off the armory, which I had to admit was quite large, Ares took us upstairs again, to the kitchen where some nymphs were storing foods and then up another flight of stairs to the bedrooms and he showed off his large bathroom wich was decorated with shiny mosaics picturing marine themes - including, not unexpected - a warrior which might be himself battling a huge sea monster. The tub was large and faced a fireplace so you could watch the flames while bathing. Or if that was not what you fancied you could look out the window at that magnificent view with the waterfall again. And not only that - Ares showed how to open up the window, and there the tup extended out on a terracce.  
"In winter time I love to fill this tub with hot hot water and then soak outside while the steams evaporate across the teracce and roll out into nothingness."

"So that's where all the clouds around Olympos come from" Kalian smiled. "Bathing gods."  
"Now that'd be really something" I laughed. "An army of tubhopping gods! Perhaps there'd be less time for wars then. And more really good smelling gods."  
"At least here in Greece," Ares said.

Kalian went over to the taps and turned one of them and managed to soak himself, since the water pressure was quite high. Odd on a mountain top and I had to ask about that.  
"Magically enhanced" Ares explained. "Certain small tricks can increase the pressure tenfolds."  
"You use magic here a lot?" Kalian asked.  
"Yes - because for some gods it's hardly an effort. They plant a formula and then it sort of runs by itself with very little help from outside. It's called 'static magic'."  
"Can you do that, dad?"  
"Yeah, but I'm a bit so-so at it. I'm better at volative magic. I like when things happen around me."  
"I bet you do, dear!" I smiled.

As planned, we dressed up and went over to the palace of Zeus the same evening. The sun was setting behind us and turning the sky pink, setting clouds on fire. I got to walk trough the legedary gardens of Olympos and could compare them with what I had seen of the garden of the Anatolian gods. And there sure was a tellable difference. The Olmpian gardens didn't look that overly tended and tinkered with, they had a natural, sound and healthy look. Trees and flowers seemed to thrive with splendor and the lanterns of divine light, burning in soft colours all over, seemed almost like they were part of the nature too, so neatly were they lining the walkways or hanging from the trees. Marble statues were put up randomly around and they looked like they would come alive any moment so skillfully were they sculpted. There were fountains as well, not only made from marble but from glass and gold too, all very beautiful and delicately handycrafted.

Colourful birds were singing from the trees or performing acobatics in the air and curious deers came out and regarded us with inscrutable brown eyes as we passed. Then I almost thought I saw a lion once. And a unicorn. After a while we reached a hedging where some of those striped horses called zebras were gracing. They hardly looked up when Kalian tried to levitate over the fencing and Ares caught him in an instant.  
"Can you ride those?" Kalian asked.  
"It's possible but not really the best choise." Ares replied. "We have magnificent regular horses here instead, as I told you earlier. We'll see those tomorrow as promised. The zebras are mostly for display."  
"They do look cool!" Kalian pointed out.

The next moment we spotted a threesome of nymphs running down a slope, the two latter were obviously chasing the one in the lead, their titter and laughter echoing between the trees. They were dressed in silky gowns and wore long scarves around their necks, scarves, which flowed back in graceful meanderings behind them. I was surprised that these thin garments didn't get caught on tree branches or in thickets of bushes. Personally I would have found it very hard to control my clothing with such meticulousness.

Ares had bareely set Kalian down when he went running ahead again, curious as usual. This time he soon encountered some children his own age, a boy and two girls.  
"That's my little sister Soteira. Zeus' and Hera's youngest." Ares indicated a girl with the same dark curls as Kalian. "Then there's Athena's daughter Enata and Himeros, son of Aphrodite."  
"I hope they get along!"  
"They will, look at them!"

I complied and became rewarded with how the foursome came running up to us. Soteira threw herself at Ares with a happy outcry of his name and he was heaving her up in the air and tickling her, just like he always did with Kalian. The girl held a striking recemblance to my own son, she could almost pass for a twin to Kalian. Same dark hair and large brown eyes and same kind of dimpled smile turning into a similar youthful laughter as Kalian's. Then the strawberry blond Enata was in for the same treatment.  
"Tell about the war! Tell everything, Aru!" she urged.  
"Everything about that war is quite a lot, especially since I know how into details you are, little Falcon. So I'll do that later. Perhaps tomorrow." Ares replied.

The dark blond Himeros was a bit more reserved though but eventually he let Ares give him a hug. Ares told Soteira, Enata and Himeros who I was and the Olympian children said their quick hellos before were off as soon as they had come, all four of them now. I watched them running ahead together up the golden, tree lined avenue towards the the main palace, their high-pitched voices piercing the silence and scaring off bands of night birds.

"Who's Himeros's father?" I felt I had to ask, as I knew that Ares had fathered children with Aphrodite. Ares, who was getting what I hinted about, shook his head:  
"That's one of Aphrodite's well kept secrets" he told. "Himeros' genes are not Olympian anyhow, that much do we know. I'd guess he's the son of Thor, a god from up north whom Aphrodite have been having an on-off relation with since the end of the Trojan war. Enata is the daughter of a god named Mithras, Athena has never been secretive about it, even though they were never together for real."  
"So Athena's not a virgin anymore then?"

At those words Ares started to laugh so hard he scared off a couple of colourful birds in a tree.  
"Mortal tales again! Athena was a virgin up until she was fifteen or so when she gave herself to Thot of Egypt. Or rather - he gave himself to her. Then again my big sister has never been that keen on reckless love-making. She's very sparse with her graces, and I guess standing next to Aphrodite can make any goddess appear as a virgin."  
"So that was why she was a bit sad over at my place, when looking at Kalian. She missed her own daughter. Who takes care of Enata when Athena is out warring? Her father?"  
"No, Hera does." Ares told. "My mum is more or less the extra mother to almost all of Olympos. And raising children is something she delights in almost as much as raising cities."

We continued along the path, passed one of those lakes and a streaming waterfall, and then the path started to slope upwards, serpenting twice up the hillside beside the waterfall. There were stairs cut into the mountain for those who were walking like us, while horses and chariots could use the serpents. And I guessed a lot of gods flew up as well. But since I wanted to see as much as possible walking felt like the best option tonight.

As we ascended the last steps of the golden stairs we passed beneath a pretty arc and the sidewalk connected with the tree lined main path once more. Ahead of us laid a front yard with one impressive fountain lit by colourful divine light and the circle walkway was surrounded by marble statues of men and beasts which seemed to form a kind of storyline, although I was not familiar with that one. The palace had two wings and was bathed in light in the warm dusk of early evening. Dancing Estelli - those little sparkle beings - were playing in the fountain like overgrown fireflies and the flagrance of nocturnal flowers was immense.

The children had already disappeared inside when we ascended the imposing marble stairs and entered trough large, golden double doors. Those opened automatically to admit us into a large entrance hall with yet another fountain, pots with cut flowers, a waterfall against a wall, firebrands with multicoloured divine light and a magnificent double staircase leading to upper floors, all in gold-inlaid marble. Once again I was breath taken.

Ares guided me up one of those stairs and inside a splendid ballroom lit by even more divine light in chandeliers of sparkling crystals, the colours dancing around the large room. There was beautiful music mixed with soft talk as people - gods - mingled around in small groups. When we entered all the talks died down. The gods in here had felt my unfamiliar presence and were looking at Ares and me entering the door with curiosity and anticipation in their eyes. It made me suddenly feeling shy.

That didn't last long though, because a tall, agile and incredibly handsome blond man came walking towards us with open arms and flowing togas in purple and white. That was Great Zeus, anyone would identify him. Halfway across the floor he picked up a beautiful and elegant woman. She must be Lady Hera; I recognized her features from Ares. Same large, brown eyes and dark curls braided and donned up in an elaborated hairdo and those full lips which smiled like they knew a secret.

And when Zeus and Hera reached us the King of the Gods greeted me with a frank and direct:  
"Welcome to Olympos, Narinda."


	20. Mighty Aphrodite

**Mighty Aphrodite**

"Welcome to Olympos!" Athena echoed her father's greeting and then she gave first me and then Ares a heartily hug. It felt warm and wonderful - and a bit strange. I was yet not used to the thought that I was almost an equal to these magnificent beings now. After all this elevation in status had happened so fast and was hardly connected to anything more than being in love with Ares. That and a still unfamiliar father who I knew next to nothing about, more than that he was the brother of the dazzling Apollo. Nothing I had actually DONE or acquired to substantiate my presence here.

Zeus and Hera had not really felt that peculiar to meet, they had after all been mighty and remote gods who had never mattered a lot in my daily life. Thus they had hardly been on my mind during the years, save for the yearly celebrations of the king and queen of the gods, which were being held all over. On top of that Zeus had been so utterly direct in his approach that I almost forgot his grandeur in an instance, he had taken my hands and showed the same kind of frankness as the one I admired in Ares. And while Ares looked mostly like his mother Athena was obviously daddy's girl when it came to both appearance and manner. Same kind of attractive charisma and straightforward behaviour and same kind of optimistic, fair and no-nonsense look at life.

And same kind of unruly blond hair, adding to the vibrant appearance, although Athena had done her best to tame it into an elegant hairdo adorned with pearls and sapphires. Those gems complimented the blue in her eyes and her knee-long dress which was made of a satin so blue that it almost looked like it was emitting light by itself and which moved like waves of the ocean around her when she walked.  
"Did you manage to sell your combat to Achilles?" Ares asked as soon as he and Athena let go of each other.  
"Oh, he was not that hard to convince. He's packing as we speak, planning to leave with me first thing tomorrow. At least I haven't seen him here tonight."  
"Well, I'm hardly surprised. The man has been restless in his soul ever since he and Leldona split up."  
"Now that was too sad" Athena said and then she turned to me. "That's a story I'll have to tell you later, Narinda. The darn Aphrodite, she never learns!"

"It wasn't just Aphrodite's fault." Ares sighed. "Leldona was no miss faithful either. Going after first Zephyros and then Apollo the way she did, no wonder the relation didn't last."  
"Sounds like a messy story," I commented.  
"It sure was," Athena returned. "THE talk of the town a few decades ago. And I can guarantee you, Narinda, that we Olympians have had our fair share of messy stories over the centuries. Anyhow, now I'm getting Achi with me when I go west. How about yourself, Ares. When will your fighting spirit wake up again?"

Ares took my hand:  
"Perhaps in a year. Or three. I want to be a family man now for quite a while. To learn and understand that concept."  
"What?" Athena exclaimed with mocked surprise. "Who are you? What have you done with Ares? "  
"As a matter of fact I sold him. As a love slave to the healer goddess Narinda, daughter of Inandon."

At those amusing words both Athena and I started to laugh.  
"Did she pay well?" Athena asked and made a face of mockery.  
"Enough for me to buy a new horse."  
"As if you don't have enough equines!"  
"It's for Kalian!"  
"Already wrapping you around his little finger, I can tell!"

Ares and Athena had bantered a bit more like that and meanwhile I took the chance to locate Kalian. He and the other divine children were out on a balcony playing a game by floating coloured glass balls in the air and trying to form constellations with them. Divine games of a kind neither he nor I had done before. Then again Kalian was adapting fast and seemed to enjoy himself royally.

I took my attention off the children and looked around at the magnificent hall and the gathered gods and goddesses who moved so elegantly that they seemed to swim in the bright yet soft and alluring multicoloured light, flowing clothes casting soft shadows and jewels and gems glittering and shimmering, sending off primary coloured sparkles. Just like Athena and Hera all the goddesses were perfection in every inch, and even if I had done my best with my average appearance I felt quite out of place. Yet Ares had picked me over all those beauties and that must count for quite a lot. He had told me he wanted love and friendship and was sick of shallow lust. That I had been the very first one who gave him that for real. Who wasn't either awed by him or afraid of him. So I guessed a lot of the goddesses up here might possibly be a bit superficial. Perhaps you became that when you started to take eternal beauty and perfection for granted.

After chatting a bit with Athena, Ares guided me further on and introduced me to more gods and goddesses. I got to meet his siblings Hermes, Dionysos and Artemis and Dionysos' wife Ariadne who came here even as a mortal some four hundred years ago. There was my unexpected uncle Apollo and Demeter and her lovely daughter Persephone. And later on I was introduced to Asklepios, he had felt almost as surreal as Athena to meet, although he was talkative and happy, and wanted to show me his work first thing tomorrow, beaming with eagerness.

Then I saw her. Aphrodite, Ares ex-lover. Her appearance made me quite uncomfortable, because she was even more beautiful and sexy than I had imagined. She just radiated raw irresistibility, unable for any man to withstand. I understood well that she had floored not only my Ares but also almost all the men at Olympos, many of them more than once. I comprehended as well that her husband Hephaestos might look a bit worried. Then again while Aphrodite was more stunning than anyone could possibly imagine, Hephaestos wasn't half as ugly as the stories went. When we rode the Mileburner last week Hephaestos had worn his top-to-toe leather outfit and a cap with round goggles, so I hadn't really got that much chance to check him out. Thus it was first now I could tell what he really looked like. As a mortal he would have passed for handsome, although a bit too plain and anonymous. Not the one you turned your head after, even if he did have a winning smile. But at Olympos he paled considerably compared to Hermes, Apollo, Dionysos, Helios and all the rest.

Ares didn't hesitate; he dragged me up to where Aphrodite and Hephaestos arrived together with a couple who turned out to be Eros and Psyche. And while Hephaestos shook my hand firmly with a beaming smile upon his angular face, inviting me for another ride at the Mileburner, Aphrodite's lavender eyes were cold as glaciers when she regarded me as if I was something her cat had dragged in.  
"Narinda, pleased to meet you!" she said with an icy voice, and it was clear she meant anything but that.  
"Thank you," I whispered while she was eyeballing me up and down, taking every flaw in my appearance, it seemed. Then she turned to me, sort of excluding the rest of the world while letting me know:  
"Although I do feel the need to warn you. Ares is just like his father. He's not one woman's man. So be prepared that he will go elsewhere when he tires of what you can give."  
"That's not…" I started, glancing over to Ares who had not heard but was talking eagerly with his brother; the latter was quickly sketching something in the air with his large workman's hand."  
"That is just a warning in all well meaning." Aphrodite went on. I had hardly ever heard anything sound so false and deceiving. Certainly Ares wouldn't… At the same time Aphrodite's chill and harsh words almost brought tears to my eyes. I suddenly felt so vulnerable. So much like an intruder, not really worthy of being here, at Olympos itself, in spite of most other gods' heartily welcome.

The next moment Aphrodite turned away from me like I didn't deserve more of her attention, and I suddenly felt left aside, forgotten by each and everyone around. But not for long, a soft and warm arm was tucked under mine, and Psyche leaned against me, her rosy lips close to my ear:  
"Don't let her bother you, dear", the curvy lass whispered. While I remained speechless Psyche went on: "What you have to know, dear Narinda, is that in the world of Aphrodite it's all about Aphrodite. Self centered is her middle name! I had a mighty hard time breaking through her barrier once. She regarded me as unworthy her son Eros. And at the same time - can you believe that - she envied me my looks, which are of quite a different kind. But I guess it has to do with - she's more alike the two of us than you might think, Narinda."

"How's that?" I asked the wife of Eros, looking in to an honest pair of jade eyes shadowed by long lashes and golden eye shadow beneath unruly dark-brown curls. Psyche's winning smile grew even broader, dimples deeper, as she went on:  
"She too came here as a stranger, even if it was long ago and most people have forgotten it these days. But she remembers. And she thinks that makes her different from the founders and from the daughters born here. As a result she feels she has to fight each and every day to prove herself worthy."  
"How do you know all that?"  
"Well, let's just say I'm good with people. While you heal their broken bodies I am the one who heal their shattered souls."  
"That's fantastic, dear! I bet you and I will have a lot to talk about then. But why did Aphrodite feel she have to prove herself against me so hard? Because I'm a newbie? Or because of Ares?"  
"Perhaps both. Darling, I have my suspicions that she never really got over Ares. She married Hephaestos, that's true. But Ares still lingers on her retinas. And in her heart."  
"Do I have to… watch it for her?"  
"I wish I could say no, Narinda, but I'm not sure. Not at this early state. Do keep an eye on your beloved, when Aphrodite is around. At least as a safety measure. Dear, I got to go, got to talk to Ariadne over there. See you around sweetie, you're right, we have a lot to talk about you and I, so catch you later!"

With those words Psyche was off like a dancing dragonfly, almost levitating across the black and white squared marble floor and up to a couple of goddesses in a corner. And she left me with a torn in my heart. Did I really have to…? Ares…

I looked at my beloved, he was still talking to Hephaestos, while Aphrodite had turned to talk to a redhead goddess I remembered as Hebe, another younger sister of Ares. And I tried to figure out what to do with the things Psyche had told me.

0O0O0O

The reception had turned into a dinner with an array of the most delicious dishes. I've met mortals who believe gods solely dine on ambrosia; I cannot imagine anything duller! Ambrosia is really a kind of drug with an oily, umami taste which feels somewhat sticky against your lips and tongue. It is used to increase the performance and stamina, and it can make you go on a long time without sleep and nourishment. I was introduced to it by another immortal back in medical school. Juturna had brought some ambrosia from home and we used it when we were studying for our exams. Later on I'd seldom taken it, I didn't like its side effects of slight sickness and dizziness when it wore off, and I had a certain feeling that it was addictive too.

Anyhow, here the ambrosia was tucked far away, and we were dining on deer steak and seafood, courtesy of Artemis and Poseidon respectively and a selection of wines hand-picked by Dionysos. I had met most of the gods by now, and I knew that I would remember at least all the top gods, the rest was just a mess in my head so far. So many names and faces to connect.

Apollo and Asklepios had joined where we were sitting; they were both curious about their new relative. And they were also darn hard to tell apart. Asks' hair was a bit longer and a slight nuance more platinum than golden and his cheeks were a bit more rounded with more notable dimples.  
"Yeah, people keep mixing us up" Ask laughed when I pointed it out. "Happens all the time, people think I'm dad and want to hear a song. But I can't play if my life should depend on it."  
"Oh yes you can, son" Apollo returned. "Or rather, you can learn. You have the talent, but it does take practice too."  
"And where should I find time for that? With all the people getting sick all the time?"  
"You'll be getting some help now, with Narinda available," Ares pointed out.

"Too bad your father couldn't make it, Narinda," Apollo said. "But I talked to my brother earlier today, he's busy in Knossos, he's a healer too you know. And if he can save just one more life, cure just one more poor mortal, he'll stay around and screw everything else. But he'll be here as soon as he'll be off duty. He said he couldn't wait to meet you!"  
"What's he like?" I wanted to know.  
"Oh, he's an intelligent and kind man. Good natured and jovial." Apollo told.  
"And very talkative," Ask filled in. "When we work together I get soary ears from all his chatter."  
"Trust me," Ares said. "You'll love Inandon! And he'll adore you!"

Dessert was served. It was something called ice cream, frozen and flavoured cream, and it sure was heaven. With it was served liquor and coffee - a kind of hot dried-bean drink the Olympians bought from gods on another continent which name I forgot immediately. The coffee was the first thing I disliked during this dinner, although Ares drank it with good appétit. Apollo passed on it though.  
"I can get used to eating like this," I grinned when I had finished my second helping of ice cream. "And fat!"  
"Just come with me to the flue-ridden island of Kos and you'll wear it all off while healing!" Asklepios suggested.

After dinner we split up, I felt I had to go check out where the children were and what my dear Kalian was up to. Apollo was going to perform with the muses, and Ares went to talk with Athena once more. Asklepios excused himself to go to see a goddess called Epione; I could tell by the reddening of his cheeks that he was found of her. I was glad I didn't have that fair complexion, you blushed rather obviously then.

I found the little dears rather soon, they were playing in the staircase hall, climbing and jumping around and cat walked at the railings, all getting along great, so I decided there was nothing to worry about. I watched them for a while, Kalian was chasing a girl perhaps three years older than him, and they were both laughing out loud. Just as Soteira she looked very similar to my son. I guessed she was Hali, another little sister of Ares. What was it Hera had said? That my son looked just like Ares himself had done at that age. There were also Soteira, Enata and Himeros and two more children - Delaira, a delightful little redhead girl who was the daughter of Dionysos and the honey-blond Alexiares, son of Heracles and Hebe. They all seemed to have so much fun. I stood there and watched them for a while, listening to their joyful laughter as they went on with their fantasy game. The world of childhood - an unreachable enigma for us grown-ups! When do we forget to play like that?

After a while I returned to the mingle and soon I found myself talking to Artemis and Dionysos' wife Ariadne, lovely ladies both of them. Naturally I complimented the former on the magnificent deer. Ariadne in turn wanted to know how I met Ares:  
"The whole story of course, dear," she said and smiled.  
"It's quite a bit of a story, so I guess I have to tell it some other time." I replied, not in the mood to be a romantic bard that night.  
"Don't wait too long, I'm so really really curios!" the brown-haired lady pleaded.  
"Oh, you're such a romantic, Ari," Artemis giggled and squeezed the other goddess around her shoulders.  
"Guess I am," Ariadne replied. "Comes with the territory of being Cretan."

Then I saw Ares together with the very one I didn't want to see him together with. It was as if my eyes had been drawn across the large hall by magnetism, until it came to rest upon Ares standing together with Aphrodite over at the bar where Ganymedes was serving after-dinner drinks. The goddess of love was beaming like a little star, all of her attention directed at Ares, and with one obvious plan in her mind. I saw her cast her head, showing off her swan neck and making her blond waves flow around her like dancing golden sunbeams. And how she subtly but definitely was sneaking up very very close to Ares.

"Aphrodite!" I heard myself saying out loud and it made Artemis turn her head and also notice what I was seeing.  
"Correct, she might be married to Hephaestos, the great inventor and manufacturer. But that hasn't hindered her sleaziness from sleeping around with almost all the rest of the gods in town. She seems to have a thing for Ares though, so if I was you…"

The rest of what Artemis said was lost to my ears when I saw Aphrodite lay her arms around Ares' neck and kiss him right on the lips.

Oh noh!

I froze, became like one of the statues in the garden.

How could I possibly compete with her, the very essence of beauty and sensuality?


	21. Kindred Spirits

**Kindred spirits**

The rest of what Artemis said was lost to my ears when I saw Aphrodite lay her arms around Ares' neck and kiss him right on the lips.

Oh noh!

I froze, became like one of the statues in the garden.

How could I possibly compete with her, the very essence of beauty and sensuality?

But the next second Ares pushed Aphrodite away, snarling something at her I didn't hear. Then he came striding in my direction. And Aphrodite was running after.

"Ares…"  
"Forget it! I'm sick of being your plaything!"  
"You're not…"

Ares turned slightly:  
"I'm not a dog who comes running when you call. You ended it ten years ago, remember. I was tiring you, remember saying that? Now go back to the hubby of yours, I'm sure he can make you some blingbling to hang around your neck as a consolidation price."  
"Ares!" Aphrodite persisted.  
"You heard him, you slut!" Artemis interrupted.

"Just WHAT did you say, you frigid bitch," Aphrodite returned.  
"I guess I'm out of here" Ariadne said and left. But not before she had squeezed me on the arm with a "See you!"  
"Come dance with me, Didi, to the music of our Apollo!" Ares said and took my hands while Artemis and Aphrodite started to create quite a scene. I smiled and then I was in his arms, my body melting against his while we moved out on the floor in front of the stage where other couples were already dancing to the ethereal music.

0O0O0O

Later that night when we had returned to the villa and put Kalian to bed in his new room (I had thought that would be hard, but he was more than tired and fell asleep almost before his dark head hit the pillow) Ares and I were relaxing together in the large bed in the spacious room that was ours from now on. We had made love, another wonderful experience, and now my love was resting on his back, one arm beneath his head and the other around my waist. Only night vision made it possible to make out his content features, because there was no moon that night, and we had let the divine fire die in the fireplace. You tended to forget those furnaces when you were occupied by other fires.

I leaned my cheek in my right hand, touching his soft lips gently with some fingers of the left one.  
"Ares?" I felt the need to ask.  
"Yes, dear?"  
"What about Aphrodite?"  
"What about her?"  
"What's her problem? She still has a - thing - for you?"

"Yes, she might have that. Or she might not. You never know with her, and that's the main problem. That's why she is so hard for any man to be with. I guess in the end she does not even know herself. And I - I don't want a life like that. I want honesty and fair play. While she - she's yours one day, the next day she's gone and you're not worthy of her lost strands of hair in the bed. Until she turns her grace towards you again, which might be the next day, the next week or the next year. Or - never. "  
"So she's not..."  
"You don't have to worry the slightest about her, Didi-mou. You're everything she's not. You're strong and reliable, you're intelligent and funny. You're creative between the sheets and most of all you're a gentle and magnificent soul. And the mother to Kalian - the greatest gift anyone has ever given me."

"Yet Eros is your son."  
"Yes, but Aphrodite withheld him from me. I never got a chance to be a part of his upbringing. I hardly knew him until he became a teenager and came to me by himself. Then he felt to me just like any of all those apprentices I train in martial arts in the Arena I showed you earlier today. A pupil rather than a son, one of many. You know, during peacetime most war gods spend their time training children, not only in martial arts, but in all kind of physical disciplines. I learned to love the lad but I have never really felt any real kinship with him. Not as how a father is supposed to feel towards a son at least. Not like with Kalian, although I've known him less than a month."  
"Kal loves you so much!"  
"As I love him."

"Psyche told me..." I began, not yet ready to leave the subject of his sister in law. "That Aphrodite had envied her her beauty."  
"Yes, as crazy as it might sound, Aphrodite wants to excel over all, refusing to see that beauty can be of so many different kinds. It can be sultry lust and raw sex as with Aphrodite. It can be regal elegance as with my mother or healthy strength as with my sisters Athena and Artemis. It can be sensual cuteness as with Psyche or Ariadne, warm motherly comfort as with Demeter or fierce wildness as with Hestia. She can be a shiny pearl like Poseidon's Amphitrite, a radiant, exotic enigma as Selene, a dark mystery like Hecate or a colourful artisan, ready to surprise you at any moment, like any of the muses. Or it can be your kind."  
"And what exactly is my kind."  
"I don't know what to call it really, other than when I look at you I know that I have found my way home. Your eyes hold everything I ever wanted to see, your arms are welcoming and your body is warm and lush. And you have never questioned me for who I am."

"A god of war."  
"Yes, someone who kills to acquire his goal. So many times have I been called a blood thirsty beast from those I had thought knew me better. So often have I seen fear rather than desire in the eyes of women. So often have I dreamt that someone would uncover me. But no one ever did - until you came along."  
"Ares - perhaps because I knew you - the man, before I knew what others told about you. All right you were outright with your profession as a warrior, but I could never believe that the gentle man I had held in my arms was the monster Xena and others were talking about. "

"Yet there is more. You're my healer and my kindred spirit, and no Aphrodite, no matter how much pink flesh she flashes, can come between us. Now, sweetie, we both need our beauty sleep. I promise you, tomorrow Kal is going to come running almost before dawn pestering us about that horse."

O0O0O

"You know, Ares and I were not always the best of friends" Athena admitted as we walked alongside the terrace overlooking the Aegean some 10 000 feet below. In spite of being a bit past noon it wasn't as hot as it usually is this time of year, although the sun was blazing right down from a cloudless sky, and I guess the aegis shielded us from the worst heat as well. Or perhaps it was some cold mountain air which was let trough.

I looked out over the deep blue sea while touching the marble balustrade slightly with two of my fingers, the surface felt soft and smooth beneath my fingertips. The sea looked so endless and tranquil from this altitude, glittering in the midday sun and with some bluish islands far away by the horizon. Then I turned and looked at Ares's sister. Athena wore a knee-long white peplo and a thin, semi-transparent cross between a toga and a scarf which was blowing behind her in the wind, like sails on a boat. The likewise white garment was fastened by a brooch by her shoulder and she wore elegant bracelets and a necklace of black and white pearls. Light years from the fighter in black leather who had assaulted and defeated Ares in Salenda.

"How so?" I asked the goddess of wisdom.  
"Well, the first 300 years or so I saw him mostly an annoying fight picker, and he and I had quite hard to get along. He was always trying to show off by picking fights with my militia, campaigning his Spartans around the Hellas peninsula and creating civil wars, especially against my Athenians. But I had learned quite a few things about strategy and I kicked his ass most of the times, which if possible made him even madder at me."

"What made that change? What made him change?"  
"Him? And me as well? Narinda, I don't know. I mean - I cannot put my finger on a particular incident. But I guess both he and I matured quite a bit. We both learned that we had nothing to gain with these endless conflicts. It benefitted no one. Not Athens, not Sparta, not Ares, not me. Then came the time when we were more or less forced to cooperate, because the Hellas Commonwealth was facing external threats. And then there couldn't be two war gods who fought against each other all the time. We had to join forces and marsh side by side against the barbarians of the north and the tribes of the east. I guess hadn't we stopped fighting internally father would have forced us to nevertheless."

"Zeus seems so gentle and level-headed." I commented.  
"Trust me, he has quite a temper. And when anything threatens the Commonwealth - his creation - he'd do anything to save it. Anyhow, as we started to cooperate instead we began to see each other's benefits too - Ares understood the advantages of strategies, tactics and planning and not just rushing ahead. And I learned that it can often be a good thing to deploy those berserkers. Those madmen who know very little about fear, or chose to forget it for the adrenaline rush, and charges ahead without thinking, screwing all the odds. They can do stupid things but often very brave things too. They can take chances where a more level-headed soldier chickens out. And they can inspire others, drag them along and make fighters achieve the impossible, like beating a much larger army. Finally, if they don't get themselves killed, they are often very durable as soldiers. And they become the heroes we decorate when the war is over and the reason why we can recruit more warriors."

"His Dark Warriors - well I don't claim to know anything about war - but what I saw and understood of them was that they were very good soldiers."  
"They are. Ares has an eye for good people. And when he and I were more or less pushed together, forced to cooperate, we had to start acting civilized against each other. Or it would never have worked. So we began to talk. First about day to day business like where to marsh and how to plan ahead for the next battle. About the enemy. And of all those small things that has to work in a war. Logistics, healers, weaponry et cetera. Scouts and spies' intelligence - everything. Then we started to talk war philosophy. Sitting in a camp under the moonlight, listening to the silence around you, knowing very little of what tomorrow holds - that brings people together. And we were talking about this place - Olympos - and our family and... Well just say we gave each other a fair chance for the first time in our lives. And we both took that chance as well. That hasn't really stopped us from being at each other's throats now and then, but we have learned to respect the other one at least. And that was a long way to come for two stubborn war gods."

I laughed at that comment.  
"Still you're so much more than a war goddess, Athena."  
"That's true. I can't lose myself in the same thing for long. I need to try new things or I get impatient. Silly, I know but that's the way I work."  
"You're not silly. To me you've always been someone I held in deep respect. And that hasn't grown any lesser because I came here and was received as an equal. All right, Olympos is not an alluring enigma anymore, but the magic is still there."

Now it was Athena's turn to laugh:  
"Trust me, Narinda, this place reeks with magic. You'll stumble over it everywhere. Some people are sloppy and don't clean up after themselves, others leave enchantments behind on purpose, as a way to joke. You'll have to look out for magic trap doors or else you don't know where you'd end up. In some of the lakes perhaps. But I guess Ares warned you about it."  
"What do you do about it?"  
"We have some goddesses - the Graces - one of their duties is to remove old enchantments. But sometimes I guess they cannot keep up, or they simply don't find everything."

"About Ares, you're still competing? Like when I first met you."  
"Yes that's a thing I guess we'll never stop doing. After all it's fun, educating and it keeps the other one alert. Ares was a bit slack there in Salenda, so near the border of Anatolia and all. Still I guess he couldn't help himself, being so crazy in love."  
"I'm crazy about him too."  
"Yes - he deserves that. He hasn't had it easy with Aphrodite and all that. Shallow affairs. He needed the real thing."  
"How about yourself?" I asked, remembering the mortal tales about a virgin goddess which was apparently untrue.  
"One day. I'll wait though. That's one benefit with immortality. You don't have to rush these things," said the goddess of wisdom.

We descended a case of marble stairs and entered the garden below. A short walk while I pondered what Athena had said. Then she became the one to break the silence:  
"I can tell you really love my brother. Narinda, even if it might get hard sometimes. When he goes off warring and you don't hear a sound of him - do not mistrust him. Ares needs trust. So very few people have ever given him that. Not even the benefit of a doubt when he starts fighting and seems to be lost in blood thirst."  
"Athena" I said. "I've already been there done that with him. I had to wait six years for him to come back to me. Sometimes not convinced that I would ever see him again. And when he finally came he scared the wit out of me first. You know I've heard all those stories about Ares, god of war. And when he showed up in Darangorlad, I had no idea it was my beloved who I faced first. I thought my last second in life was pending. Mine and Kalians. You know he never told who he was until - that day. When he came."  
"I think I understand. That must've been hard."

We had stopped by an intersection of two paths. Like a little 'square' with a neat fountain with a statue of a lion and marble benches. Here the flagrance of white bird cherry blooming out of season filled the air. There were also lilacs and some pink flowers I didn't know the name of.  
"Belilles," Athena answered my question. "They're a bit too tender for the word outside. But Demeter made them just for the beauty and they can manage here at Olympos, where there are nymphs to take care of them."

"Athena" I changed subject, as we sat down on one of these benches. "Ares told me something strange a while back."  
"What?"  
"You met a god once. Odus or Onus or something. I don't remember..."  
"Osiris?"

"No, not him. Well, this god tries to rape you and you use an Adamantine knife tearing out the man's eye. And Ares told me it didn't regenerate. That goes against everything I know about medicine. If you know the basic genetic structure you can grow back anything. Immortals heal themselves naturally; mortals have to have divine help. But how can anyone..."  
"I remember that one. Odin. Creepy fellow." Athena wrinkled her brow and quieted for a while. I waited, sure that there would be more. For a while the only thing heard was the birds and the water in the fountain. Then Athena seemed to have finished her mindsearch and collected her emotions.  
"There's a place north of the Black Sea called Mimer." she went on. "There's an old volcano there and several hot wells. The place is spooky and reeks with sulphur, but mortals go there in masses to bath away their deceases. Works in some cases as you might well know."  
"Yeah," I nodded my head.

"Anyhow the water in those wells doesn't only carry healing magics; because of the minerals in it it's a very potent scrying device as well. You can see a lot, including many possible futures, and even be able to interpret them. And there's especially one well at Mimer with an extra strong concentration of zinc and some uranium too. A well in a cave a bit up on the mountain side. I was planning to use some of that water for a certain research I needed to do. I was going to look way back in time, even before the beginning of the Titan wars. To be successful in such a venture I needed a strong medium. And to make it even better I planned to have the uranium reacting with my own ichor. Those nuclear forces make it in theory possible to go back in time even before the birth of mankind. That's why I went to Mimer and to this special well and sampled enough water for my research. I also bought an Adamantine knife to cut myself with and bleed some in the water. Instead I ended up using it in quite a different way.

I had hardly begun my work when I felt the presence of a stranger god. First I couldn't care less, I was busy doing my thing and I figured this god might enter if he liked, after all this well was a public place. Yet I got a creepy feeling upon his entrance. And when he greeted me there was something sinister and patronizing in his voice, something which gave me very uncomfortable vibes. Especially since he asked me what I was doing there by the well. Not out of curiosity, mind you, rather as if I had no right to be there. I remember looking up in a face I might have regarded as plain. Nothing really to write home about if it wasn't for his utterly annoyed expression. I decided to not let myself become affected and simply told that I was sampling water for scrying. I remember him looking at my knife with even more affect in his eyes and how I therefore tucked it away in my belt instead of drawing the blood I intended. I also decided that the best thing was to leave. The bloke was in a miserable mood and I certainly didn't need his attitude problems.

Then he asked me something very strange. He asked me if I was the Mimer, and I told the truth, that this place didn't have an assigned god or goddess. It was an unrestricted area. I told him my name and that I had come here to seek wisdom. In return he told me his name, and he told me that he had learned about this water trough a prophecy. Giving me some elaborated story while I capped my bottles of water. First I thought that he was loosening up a bit, then he said that he was familiar with our clan and that I labeled myself 'goddess of wisdom'. 'I crave wisdom' he had said. 'Can't get enough of it'.

I confessed that it was the same with me. And just as I was planning to let my guards down a bit Odin came up to me and sort of intruded upon my private sphere, and as I took a step back and tried to circle him, he grabbed my arm. 'I crave' he said, and there was something mad in his eyes, and I saw in his mind with frightening clearance that he was planning to rape me. Then it all happened very fast. He tore my dress apart and reached for my undergarment. In return I got my knife up. To make as much harm as possible in an easy way, I aimed for his eye and pierced it with the Adamantine. At that moment I was steaming with rage, and I used my powers over Adamantine to severe his surrounding cells, damaging them beyond natural regeneration."  
"So it is possible. No one can heal him?"  
"Perhaps a skilled healer like yourself. Or Asklepios. But apparently they don't have healers of that kind where he comes from."

0O0O0

Not unexpectedly I found Ares down by the Arena where he was sparring with Achilles. They both looked fierce and wild, and save for the fact that their blades were mere iron the fight look frightening realistic. I regarded them for a while and then I guess they both decided to call it a day. Achilles and Athena were returning to their war in the west tomorrow and Achilles had some things to finish at Olympos first. Ares came up to me, drying sweat from his face and neck with a napkin.  
"Kalian's not with you?" I asked after that we had greeted each other with a rather chaste kiss.  
"No" Ares shook his head. "He went swimming with the rest of the kids."  
"Where? In one of the lakes?"  
"No, they went down to the Aegean. There are some underwater caves there the others couldn't wait to show him."

"He'll have a lot to tell tonight then I bet," I smiled. It felt so fine to be able to let him roam free with other children without having to check upon him all the time to make sure he didn't revealed his divine status, and thus blew the cover I had been keeping. Now he was among family. Other gods. And there was no reason to pretend anymore.

"By the way Inandon'll be here the day after tomorrow." Ares told. "Your old man! Now you'll have to excuse me, I need to go wash myself, I stink!"  
"Oh you don't, honey!" I said but Ares only grinned, sniffed toward his right armpit and made a face. Then he was off in a whiff. And I was left with my ponderings. Inandon - how would he receive me? A stranger daughter. And a grandson.


	22. Heart of a Healer

**Heart of a Healer**

Inandon, the name felt strange upon my lips when I tried to say it. Inandon was my father. And he was coming to us at Olympos today. Once again I felt nervous, but it was another kind of edginess than the one I had felt before my first visit to the Palace of Zeus. Back then I had been more worried that some random god might feel that I didn't belong, and give me a chew over for that. Something I reasoned I really wouldn't care that much about. Now I really hoped Inandon would like me or at least accept me. I had been so used to being without parents for years and years, so to think along the lines of a father in my life felt really peculiar to me. A divine father especially. A god, another healer. Someone who shared my powers and perhaps all those thoughts about life, death, pain and remedies which came together with that. Someone to talk shop with the way I had done with Xena. Someone who might take interest in Kalian as well. Becoming a grandpa.

I still felt that pain in my chest upon thinking about the man who had been married to my mother. The cruel being who had always sought to lessen me. The one who had destroyed my childhood in a way no child should have hers destroyed. At the same time I had seen how a real father behaved. I had experienced Ares' behaviour towards Kalian, and I had also seen how Zeus had treated his adult children as well as the little ones. There was love and compassion, respect and understanding. Even towards the adults like Ares, Apollo and the rest Zeus showed a hint at mentorship. Or at least the willingness to listen and solve problems.

"Relax, Didi-mou!" Ares said and took my chin in his hand. "Ina doesn't bite. Come on now, dear, we can't keep the old man waiting, right?"  
"I happen to know that you're older than him, so pipe down will you!"

Ares chuckled and took me under my arm and the we headed up for the palace of his parents. I was getting quite used to this promenade now, so we flew most of the way instead. Kalian was of course somewhere up there already with his new found friends. If I used my divine scanning and hearing I could hear them catcalling and mimicking roars of no doubt horrendous monsters somewhere at the other side of the mountaintop. We hardly saw our son these days; he had even forgotten to nag about a horse. I was so happy for him, he seemed to have come to terms with all this much faster than I, who still carried around that odd feeling that I would wake up any minute and be back in Darangorlad, and having to get ready for yet another day in the hospital. And I did miss Xena. After all we had shared so much for so many years, and it felt sad to not having her around to talk to, even if I had found new friends here in Athena, Ariadne, Psyche, Artemis and a few others.

This time we didn't go to that great ballroom but took the stairs up to the third floor and a much smaller and cozier living room. Apollo was there playing some music as well as Zeus, Asklepios, Hestia and a few others. Hestia was almost always around during gathering, radiating coziness and a feeling of welcome. Apollo stopped playing his lyre and informed:  
"Artemis went to get Kalian and Hera has gone down to receive Leto and Inandon."

Not soon after Hera entered the room with man and a woman who looked very much alike. They had the same chestnut hair and olive complexion as I recognized from Artemis as well, while Apollo and had received most of his looks from Zeus. Add to that a petite nose and angular brows I knew so well from my own mirror image. The man was short by divine standards, massively built and with an open and honest face and lips which were used to smile. He quickly laid his eyes on me and then he came forward with fast strides:  
"You must be Narinda!"

Next moment Inandon had embraced me like it was the most natural thing in the world, and I felt how strong he was, like a bear. And when I hugged him back I felt the tears come. There was no doubt that this man meant business when it came to family ties, and that he did not hesitate to show it. He let go of me and held me two feet away, saying:  
"Let me regard you, you're beautiful, my daughter!"

I swallowed again; Ares was the only one who had called me beautiful before.

"You really think so?"  
"Of course I do! Wouldn't say so otherwise. Still, I can tell that you're overwhelmed. Well so am I, it's not every day one gets a daughter. I have a few sons, but up 'till today no daughter!"  
"You have a grandson too. Kalian. Five years old. When Artemis finds him he'll be here too."  
"That's wonderful! It's my lucky day! Hear that, Apollo! I've got a grandson too! Isn't it fantastic?"  
"Sure is!" his half-brother nodded. He had stopped his music now but as he was talking to his mother. He was showing her some accords, mostly doodling with the strings. And it was obvious she shared her son's interest in music.

"I can already tell you Narinda," Inandon went on "what makes you such a valuable and lovely goddess."  
"And that is?"  
"You have the heart of a healer. That's a great gift. Because it makes you compassionate without being soft. As a result you will handle life's hardships better than most and still be kind and gentle and at the same time strong and just. That balance of character is something your Ares understands, because it's similar to what it takes to make a good war god. That's why he loves you so much."

Hearing that from my newfound father made me blush and I got tears in my eyes. Looking at my beloved Ares I saw he was mirroring my face. Then I could say hello to Leto, my grandma! And Inandon soon got to meet Kalian; we had a great family reunion that wonderful day.

¨*¨*¨o¨*¨*¨

"It's so peculiar with life." I told Inandon. "If I hadn't come across Ares that day in Salenda six years ago, we wouldn't have fallen in love and we wouldn't have got Kalian together. And I would never have come here - to Olympos. And I would never have met you!"  
"Yes you would" my father replied, where he sat opposite of me in the living room. The others had left, out of respect for our need for privacy, to give us a chance to get to know each other.  
"What do you mean?" I asked and shifted position in the coach.

"You still think like a mortal, dearest. The thing is that if you and Ares hadn't met in Salenda you would have done so later instead. Perhaps in Darangorlad this year, or perhaps later than that - much later! Perhaps a hundred years from now. One possible future is that you would have met me first. Trough our common profession. And then perhaps I would have introduced you to the Olympians and you would've met Ares. But eventually you would have encountered."  
"And fallen in love?"  
"Most probably because your spirits call out to each other."

"Oh..." I just said.  
"Don't forget your immortality. There will always be a next time for a god or a goddess. We don't have to stress forwards like mortal, afraid to burn our chances. And besides why dwell on 'what if's'. They have never benefitted anybody."  
"You're right - father." I replied. I was still not used to address anyone using that word. It still gave me unpleasant echoes. On the other hand I had hardly met anyone so full of compassion and love as the man who was my real father. He and I ended up spending hours talking. We talked about our common profession, I told him about working in a war zone, about Xena and about meeting Ares and falling in love. And about rising a son as a single mother.

And Inandon told me about his restless travels during his youth. He told me about leaving Greece and about going west to countries like India and Sina and south trough Africa. He told me about those endless lands and about meeting old and wise gods from various corners of the world and about exchanging knowledge with them. He told me about the Celts and the great ocean beyond their islands. And I told him about travelling to Anatolia and curing Ikaton. About the spell which had been killing him slowly by pulling his soul out of his body and how I had retrieved it and saved him.  
"And still he met me with ingratitude, it made me so mad."  
"Narinda, that's just how life is. A healer doesn't always meet gratitude from the ones he or she cures. But we must never let that stop us."

Inandon was very impressed not only with my work there but also with my reasoning and determination around it. And when we went down to dinner together I felt that this was only the first one in a long serie of similar talks I would have with my new found father. It made me feel so happy.

¨*¨*¨o¨*¨*¨

Later that night, after yet another delicious dinner at the Olympos Main Palace Hera came and pulled me slightly aside.  
"Narinda, dearest" she said, and I thought she was going to talk about our upcoming wedding. But she had quite a bit more solemn look upon her beautiful face.  
"Yes?"  
"I suggest you tell Ares your secret already tonight. Before half of Olympos knows it."  
"You've... you know?"  
"Yes. After all I'm a family goddess myself, and not only I but several others here are among the mightiest of that kind in the whole wide world. I saw it in an instance when you came through the door this morning, sweetie. And I knew at least a dozen others who have noticed tonight. And if Hestia learns... well I love my old friend dearly but she can't keep a secret like that. To be true she's even better at spreading gossip then spreading fire."  
"Hera - I'll tell him tonight."  
"Promise?"  
"Cross my heart" I looked my mother in law to be firmly in her dark eyes which were so alike Ares'.

¨*¨*¨o¨*¨*¨

"Ares?" I cuddled up against my love, where he laid looking content after our love making, lids halfway closed and that cute silly smile on his lips. Darn Hera, I thought. I had only become aware this very morning, and not having had the chance to tell Ares in private earlier. How could his mother have been so certain of something I was hardly sure of myself?  
"Yes dear?" he stroke my chin, toyed with a lock of my hair as he shifted his attention slightly.

"Kalian is going to become a big brother. We're having..." I felt again, yes, now I was sure. "...we're having another son you and I!"

¨*¨*¨ 9 months later ¨*¨*¨

"Don't look at the sword" Ares lectured Kalian. "Look at my arm and hand instead. Because then you'll see my next move much quicker."  
"Okaaay" Kalian sounded impatient. But not so much with his unrelenting father as with himself. He wanted to learn everything at once, be a master in every disciple there was.  
"Come on now; don't let down your guard. Once more, lad!"  
"Ares! Kal!" I interrupted them. "It's time now."

Ares lowered his blade:  
"The baby?"  
"Yes, he wants out."  
"Yeah! Wow wow, I'm gonna have a li'l brother!" Kalian cheered, dropped his sword in the arena sand and started to run in my direction, and Ares had to call him back and tell him to pick up his weapon. Nevertheless I could tell that my beloved was eager too and really wanted to just let go of the arms the same way and forget them until they would be needed the next time. Then again Ares wouldn't have been Ares if he didn't make sure to teach Kalian all and everything about how to handle a weapon. So Kalian had to return and pick up his sword, dry off the sand and then putting it in its scabbard.

Then we returned to the villa where we were met by Eileithya, Ares' big sister and one of the primal childbirth goddesses. I was feeling the contractions now, and they made me dizzy and airheaded. Eileithya saw what the matter was and ordered Ares to take me under my arm, and then she told the two nymphs accompanying her to start preparing 'the usual'. Eileithya had the same kind of eyes as Ares, large and dark, in a round, smiling face and her dark hair was done in a billion braids hanging long on her back and adorned with pearls, beads, ribbons, rings and feathers. And I felt an instinctive liking for her. In a way she reminded me of a more happy-go-lucky and most of all talkative Xena.

"Narinda, Ares!" she ordered us. "I've prepared one of the spare rooms for you. Come on over here now. This little one is impatient; he wants to be out as soon as possible. So Ares, help Narinda! Narinda, you'll need to undress everything below that tunic and remove the ankle rings. Now, drink this!" she finished as one of the nymphs handed me a cup of nectar.

Obedient I drank it all and then we gathered in that little room which Eileithya had prepared with blankets and towels lit incense and pulled the curtains so the room was resting in a pleasant dusk. She was talking most of the time while I undressed, it turned out that one of the first children she had helped deliver was Ares himself. Then she talked about other gods and goddesses she had seen entering this world, including the twins Apollo and Artemis, Hephaestos, Persephone, Hebe, Eros, Enata, Soteira and a lot of others. Then countless of mortals, both high and low.  
"The mortals are actually more interesting. More of a challenge. Anything can happen, and it does if you're not careful. Mortal women go through so much pain. You might think this hard, Narinda. It's a piece of cake compared to what the mortal women have to endure. You know they're not as flexible as us and have weaker muscles to push with. Now, here we have him! Come on, push it baby, push it real good! Baby, one more time!"

While Ares held me from behind I was kneeling on the low mattress as our second son entered the world. It felt different to Kalian, the surroundings and the people were different, and most of all was Ares there. And at the same time - it did feel the same. Same build-up and shift in power, same excitement! And same relief as the baby entered the world with a surprised scream. Eileithya caught him with skilled hands and held him up towards us. And I saw him for the first time, he was beautiful. While Kalian's eyes had been earth brown this little lad's were blue as heaven. My eyes - no, they were a bit darker in hue, perhaps Zeus'. Eileithya was blowing at his back to relieve him of blood and gore. And with a quick twist of skilled fingers she disconnected the umbliminial cord and stopped the bleeding. Then she handed me the boy.  
"What's his name?"

I looked the child in his miracle eyes for a while then I turned to his father.  
"It's that name, right?"  
"Yes, of course it is." Ares smiled.  
"He's Koron."  
"Welcome to the world, little Koron!" Eileithya smiled as I caressed him for a while before handing him over to Ares so he could hold our second son for the very first time.

"I'm so glad you're here." I looked my love deep in the eyes. Ares stroke Koron gently over his little head which was covered with thin orange coloured strands, shining like fire, so different from the dark fluff which had been Kalian's.  
"So am I, Didi, so am I."

¨*¨*¨ 22 years later ¨*¨*¨

Kalian and Koron were already dressed up in their Dark Warrior's attires when Ares came down the stairs. Our sons had painted their warrior's names in gold on their red-crested helmets. Kalian called himself Phobos - fear and Koron had chosen the nick Deimos - terror. And now they bragged about how many Northerners they were going to kill.

"Shut it," Ares ordered. "Talk like that is to be saved for AFTER the war. Or else someone might mock you if you don't do as well as you claimed."  
"But how hard can it be?" Koron rolled his eyes, "With a war god with a nose like a banana, they can't be that good at fighting."  
"Kor, what a nose looks like is irrelevant when it comes to fighting skills" his father told him.  
"I guess it can even be the other way around," Kalian pointed out. "An ugly fart gets frustrated and angry with the world and fights harder."  
"That's a valid point, Kal." Ares said.

I looked at my sons. While Kalian had grown up to become a spitting image of his father, the six years younger Koron was strawberry blond like my mother had been, with sky blue eyes and a dust of golden freckles over his nose similar to those of Apollo and some other Olympians.

"Are you guys coming" a familiar voice was heard from outside the house. "Or can we kick all the asses ourselves?" It was Alexiares, son of Heracles, another freckled fighter. The god with the remarkable eyes - one brown and one green - was impatient as usual. I looked out; there waited not only he but his brother Aniketos as well as their father Heracles and Athena with her daughter Enata. All of them dressed up for war.

"Don't worry, cousin!" Koron called. "Kal and I figured it would be fairer if we should give you some handicap of 30 guys each before we come along to catch up."  
"Thirty!" Enata returned. "You won't even score half of them, so that's unusually gentlemanlike for coming from you, 'Deimos'".  
"Perhaps we won't - the first hour." Kalian laughed.

Our daughter Dinandra came up to me at that moment:  
"I can imagine it'll be wonderfully tranquil here with all those crazy war maniacs gone," she giggled and Koron blew her a raspberry.  
"You'll miss us before we're out of the door, Nani," Ares said and kissed her upon her olive-skinned forehead. Dinandra had become a mix between us two, auburn haired like me but with Ares' dark eyes.  
"Oh perhaps you, Daddy-o." she giggled and gave her father a bear hug.

Then Ares turned to me and caressed me gently, stroking my bulging belly.  
"Do let me know in due time when this little lady wants out."  
"I sure will," I promised while Enyo replied to her father's caress with a fierce kick. She was a warrior all in all, I could already tell. Even more than her brothers to be true. It was apparently a trait that ran stronger in the blood than the healing one.

Moments later the combatants were gone and I turned to Dinandra.  
"How about a few days rest in this suddenly so silent house. You know later the wounded mortal warriors are going to start coming in and before that we have to be down at the hospitals helping with preparations."  
"Great" Dinandra said. Then she seemed to think some things over. "You think I'm going to miss this wild gang a lot?"  
"Yes I do. But you can always write to them. You know how it works. Army Postal Service. "

**The End**


End file.
